Carrie Ann Inaba has evolved in her reaction to negative comments from DWTS fans

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https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/car...ew-1236574143/

“It used to really affect me,” Inaba tells Variety. “I have been targeted with this kind of negativity since the show began, back when we had chat rooms. I remember seeing some horrible words written about me, and I was shocked, because as a dancer, you’re used to just getting the fan love.” Inaba adds: “I’m going to judge and speak my opinions freely, whether they’re popular or unpopular, I do believe I have to give the same grace to everyone else. It does hurt. Sometimes the things they say are cruel, and that has affected me. It’s made me scared. It’s not so much that I get hurt as I get afraid, because it feels like they’re like attacking me verbally, so I shrink down a little during the season, especially after week five or six. That’s when it usually starts to happen.” As for the negative comments this season, she says: “I don’t really understand it, but I’ve come to terms with it. Now that I’ve come to terms with it, now I can speak about it. Sometimes, I’ve looked at the scores that are given, I read the comments back and think, “Well, what did I do? Let me see.” Sometimes I check! Like people blamed me about Danielle Fishel going home, and I had to look back at the scores. My scores were not the lowest scores. So, that’s fans passionate for Danelle, and I can see the positive in that. And if they come at me for scoring Whitney and Mark Ballas well, it’s because they love Alix Earle. There’s always a positive to even the most negative comments.” Inaba also discussed Andy Richter’s popularity this season. “I think he’s held to the appropriate standards for who he is,” she says. “This kind of goes back to what people always ask me: Why did I uphold the lift rule all these years? Well, because the lift rule makes it a level playing field. It was originally designed so that people who are older or maybe not in the physical shape to be able to do lift could be equal to everybody else. So even if you had more dance experience, you would be the same playing field. Andy has his own journey. It’s really more of a competition with yourself, and we just happen to be putting them next to each other while it’s happening. But it’s a competition with yourself to see how far you can push yourself, how far you can grow, how open you can be to the public, how willing you are to try and fail, which is such a vulnerable position to be in.”