Dancing With the Stars’ Jenna Johnson and Harry Shum Jr. are ready to take on the ballroom for Dedication Night after discourse surrounding their lift last week.
In a Sunday, October 18, Instagram video, Shum Jr., 44, expertly lipsynced Glee’s rendition of “I Say a Little Prayer” as a nod to his past on the show. Johnson, 32, and Shum Jr.’s wife, Shelby Rabara, danced behind Shum Jr. and lip synced the backup vocals.
“So excited for dedication night 👯♀️✨ @shelbyrabara @harryshumjr #dwts #glee,” Johnson captioned the clip.
In a separate video uploaded to the official DWTS Instagram Story, Johnson shared that the duo are performing a foxtrot. As Shum Jr. appeared in the background, he began singing John Mayer’s “Stop This Train.”
“Such a good John Mayer song. And who are we dedicating it to?” Johnson said, as Shum Jr. shared, “Shelby. My wife.” Johnson added, “We are so excited.”
Days before, controversy began when Johnson and Shum Jr. performed a samba to Usher’s “Yeah!” featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris for Super Bowl Night — and judge Carrie Ann Inaba critiqued the routine for featuring an illegal lift.
“I think you need to put more content in your dances. Especially because [Harry’s] so good, I want to see you challenge yourself a little bit more in the vein of what we’re looking for. And there was a lift,” Inaba said, while Johnson appeared surprised and replied, “A lift?”
Inaba then read the definition of a lift from a piece of paper, adding, “A lift is — I just need to say it — 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.”
Johnson and Shum Jr. were ultimately safe from elimination after receiving a combined score of 33 out of 40 from Inaba, Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli and guest judge Joe Buck.
After the episode aired, Johnson’s husband and fellow DWTS pro, Val Chmerkovskiy, stoked drama when he defended his wife on social media. In a since-deleted TikTok, Chmerkovskiy appeared to reference Will Smith infamously slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars and telling the comedian to “keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth.”
“You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” Chmerkovskiy wrote, a reference to Smith’s iconic Fresh Prince of Bel-Air role.
Inaba, for her part, took to Instagram to respond to the comment, writing, “So this is what we are doing now?”
News broke on Saturday, October 17, that Chmerkovskiy would not make an appearance on Dedication Night. Instead, his season 35 partner, Jenna Dewan, would perform a Viennese waltz with pro Alan Bersten. Chmerkovskiy issued a statement on his post on Saturday.
“In a moment where my instinct was to defend my wife, I 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,” Chmerkovskiy wrote in a statement shared with Us. “Carrie Ann certainly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of my bad judgment, and I hate that she was.”
He continued at the time, “The last thing I want is to become a distraction from an important week or from the incredible work my dance partner Jenna Dewan is putting in. Please send Carrie Ann, Jenna, and the whole DWTS family lots of love during Dedication Night. I’ll be watching and cheering everyone on!!”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
