Emma Slater defended boyfriend Alan Bersten after fans criticized his return to “Dancing With the Stars.”
Slater, 35, fired back at a TikTok video on Sunday where a fan questioned why Bersten was replacing suspended pro Val Chmerkovskiy, 40, for this week’s Dedication Night. The fan expressed disbelief that Bersten got the slot despite being eliminated in week two with partner Giada De Laurentiis. “Alan is going to dance for Val? Alan? Alan was eliminated,” the fan said in the clip.
“Yeah that’s what happens, we all step in for each other,” Slater wrote in her comment, pushing back against the criticism.
Bersten is now partnered with “Step Up” actress Jenna Dewan after Chmerkovskiy was benched for his controversial social media post referencing Will Smith’s 2022 Oscars slap of Chris Rock. Chmerkovskiy made the post to defend his wife, pro Jenna Johnson, after judge Carrie Ann Inaba criticized her samba with partner Harry Shum Jr. For containing a prohibited lift.
The controversy deepened when former “DWTS” pro Gleb Savchenko, 43, used a TikTok livestream on Sunday to openly shade Bersten’s dancing abilities. “Alan, I think he’s Alan. I mean, he’s just not up to the level of dancing, like, period — quality, the technique,” Savchenko said bluntly.
“He’s a good dancer, I guess, for TV, but if we talk about art? Like, creating art? He’s like, eh,” he continued. “I don’t want to like, talk s–t about people, I’m just being honest.”
Savchenko later said his remarks came from a professional dancer’s perspective, “comparing two dancers with very different styles, techniques, and approaches to partnering.” “I’ve known Alan for years, I have a lot of love for him, and I respect what he brings to the show,” he shared. “I was simply sharing my opinion on how different the partnership will look with Alan stepping in for Val. Nothing personal against Alan at all, and I’m looking forward to seeing him and Jenna dance on Tuesday.”
Savchenko also used the livestream to defend Chmerkovskiy and attack Inaba’s judging of Johnson and Shum Jr.’s routine. “I just watched Jenna [Johnson] and Harry [Shum Jr.]’s samba and I think it was a very entertaining dance and was really cool,” he said. “I don’t think it was an OG samba, it was a bit flat-footed, it was like a hip-hop samba. But I’ll tell you this, if I was a judge instead of Carrie Ann, I would never, ever, ever call out that lift.”
He insisted no actual lift occurred in the dance. “Jen didn’t lift him, he didn’t lift Jenna, it wasn’t done in the couple so I think it’s bulls–t,” he declared. “Probably, Carrie Ann just had to say something because she’s the lifts police of ‘DWTS.’ I think she was just doing her job creating a good TV moment, but I’d say team Val on this one. Period.”
Chmerkovskiy has since apologized for his Will Smith reference. In a statement Saturday, he said he “made a poor decision to reference a meme to ‘keep my wife’s name’ out of the conversation, without stopping to think through what else that reference could imply, which was genuinely never my intention.”
“Carrie Ann certainly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of my bad judgment, and I hate that she was,” he added. He also expressed concern about becoming a distraction from Dewan’s competition efforts, saying he does not want to “be a distraction” from her work.
The incident that sparked the entire chain of events began when Inaba flagged Johnson and Shum Jr. For a lift during their samba, a prohibited move in that dance style. Chmerkovskiy reacted by posting a meme referencing Smith slapping Rock at the 2022 Oscars while defending wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, writing that he would “keep my wife’s name” out of the conversation. The post drew immediate backlash for appearing to threaten violence against Inaba, leading ABC to suspend him for the week.
“Dancing with the Stars” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and streams on Disney+.