Carrie Ann Inaba Says She's Being "Bullied" for Unfairly Judging Kaitlyn Bristowe on DWTS
Paul Dailly
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Carrie Ann Inaba has not been holding back in her criticism of the performances during Dancing With the Stars Season 29.
The judge has found herself being criticized online by fans of the series after her comments about Kaitlyn Bristowe and Artem Chigvintsev's latest performance.
Inaba opened up about the comments on Tuesday's edition of The Talk.
"I still get bullied. Right about this time is when people start to bully me because of the way I judge people," Carrie Ann said.
"I can't believe it still happens as adults."
Inaba will not be changing her style anytime soon, she confirmed.
"I want to tell people who bully," she shared.
"'It doesn't make me change the way I judge. I'm not about to change because you try to bully me. It only makes me stand stronger in my convictions and what I believe in.'"
"Just so you all know, for all of you trying to bully me about it, I judge the way I judge from my background," Carrie Ann explained.
"That is my job to do it and I will always do it based on my own conscience, not because you're trying to tell me what to do."
Chigvintesev has opened up about the comments in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, in which he admitted he felt like the comments were personal.
"At this point, it starts being a little personal... I feel it's definitely, maybe not a different standard, but I feel like it's different expectations," he told the outlet.
"I don't know. I'm watching back the dance itself, it's like, 'Oh, you can kick sharper!' Well, I can say that about everybody who dances on the show today. I don't know. It's really odd."
Added Bristowe, "I would love to have her on the podcast, ask her a few questions. I don't know!"
"It's always reassuring to talk to other people and have them asking those same questions because we come back and we're like, 'Huh?' We're good at accepting constructive criticism," she said.
"We're like, 'OK, great, now let's apply it. Thank you for the wonderful feedback.' With this one, it's like, 'Huh? OK?'"
Kaitlyn admitted that she wanted to learn more about where Carrie Ann's critiques come from.
"Is it from a place where you believe in us and you want us to do better," she wondered.
"Is it coming from a place of, 'I was hard on Hannah [Brown] and you're another Bachelor girl'? Where is it coming from and how are we supposed to take it and bring it into our next rehearsal? What do you want us to channel and use from it?'"
"It's very hard to understand that. Derek [Hough] says things and I'm like, 'Great! Oh my gosh, I could work on that. Let's use that next time.' Same with Bruno [Tonioli]. And when Carrie Ann says things, I'm like, 'What do you want us to do with that?'"
Artem feels like the issue is making Carrie Ann happy, and how it seems impossible to do so.
It feels really discouraging, in a sense, to come back next week," he said.
"I was literally wanting to have earmuffs and put it on top of [Kaitlyn's] head."
What are your thoughts on the criticism?
Hit the comments below.
DWTS continues Monday at 8/7c.
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
