Carrie Ann Inaba doubled down on her lift critique of Jenna Johnson during Tuesday’s “Super Bowl Night” episode of “Dancing with the Stars.”
The judge, 58, pulled out a prepared definition after Johnson, 32, questioned the call on her samba with partner Harry Shum Jr., 44. The pair had just performed to Usher’s “Yeah!” when Inaba flagged an illegal move.
“I loved every minute,” Inaba began, before telling the “Glee” alum he needs to “put more content in [his] dances.”
“And there was a lift,” she added.
Johnson looked stunned. “A lift?”
“Yeah it was a lift,” Inaba responded, reading from a piece of paper that “a lift is any movement during which one of the dancers has both feet off the floor at the same time with the assistance or support of their partner.”
“Yeah, lift,” she reiterated.
Johnson shook her head as the live audience fell silent.
Derek Hough, seated beside Inaba, broke the tension. “Dang,” he said. “I feel like I got told off.”
Inaba softened slightly, adding, “I will meet you where you are.” When Hough later praised Johnson and Shum Jr. For their “fantastic performance,” Inaba could be heard agreeing with him.
In the skybox, co-host Julianne Hough asked Johnson how she felt about the criticism.
“I totally understand. I thought it was if you lifted your partner,” Johnson said. “But I totally hear Carrie Ann. I will take it. Sure.”
The exchange earned Johnson and Shum Jr. A 33 out of 40 from the judges.
“Oh my god, amazing,” Shum Jr. Said. “It’s a dream come true. We got Usher, we got Super Bowl Halftime Show. We did it!”
Johnson told her partner, “I’m so proud of you.”
The tense moment was not Inaba’s only confrontation of the night. Earlier, Guillermo Rodriguez, 55, had referenced their difficult prior interaction during his pre-performance package with pregnant partner Witney Carson. The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” sidekick told Carson that Inaba “was not too nice” when she gave him brutal feedback for his samba during “Mariah Carey Night” last week.
“I was going to say, ‘Carrie Ann, Samba is hard. It’s a lot of steps and everything,'” he continued. “Maybe she had a bad day.”
After his salsa to Bad Bunny’s “Tití Me Preguntó,” Inaba confronted him directly.
“Guillermo, did you just call me out? If you’re gonna call me out, you better bring the goods,” she said.
“I did,” Rodriguez replied.
Inaba praised him for bringing “the joy back” in his “hardest routine” yet, but the compliments were not enough to save him. Rodriguez and Carson were eliminated at the end of the episode.
The “Super Bowl Night” themed episode marked the first of its kind for the long-running ABC competition, which airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET and streams on Disney+.