‘Dancing with the Stars’ Judge Carrie Ann Inaba Gets Booed by Audience: Here’s What Happened

It turns out life on the Dancing With the Stars ballroom floor isn’t all spins and sweet talk. During the October 7 show, the audience booed judge Carrie Ann Inaba for her response to a contestant's dance. We have all the must-know details about this now-viral exchange below. 

What led to Carrie Ann Inaba getting booed? 

During DWTS’s Soul Train Night, contestant and National Basketball Association (NBA) star Dwight Howard took the floor with his partner Daniella Karagach to perform the cha cha to “Let’s Groove” by Earth, Wind and Fire. 

After the routine was over, per the show's tradition, the pair went to the judges to receive feedback. This was when Judge Inaba decided to voice her opinion and said, “I'm going to do a little real talk. That was hard to watch.” 

The crowd immediately started to boo quite loudly before Inaba cut in to explain, “No, I'm going to tell them because I know he can take the critique. I know you can do better than that, and you're trying to trick us with all the expressions." 

And while her critique might have been harsh, guest judge Rosie Perez agreed with Inaba saying, "I have to agree with my fly girl [Inaba] over here. I love you [Howard]. You know that I love you on the court. But I think you just need to work a little bit harder, that's it. But I love your passion, I really do, and you had so much fun out there."

However, Howard’s partner Karagach admitted in her pre-show interview that “this week we had to travel. We barely got any practice. So I am stressing out because the cha cha is the hardest dance we're going to do all season, and we are learning to do this in two days.” 

To which Howard added,“I'm really nervous compared to the last couple of weeks. I should definitely know more steps by now."

Ultimately, the couple was awarded a total of 22 points out of 40 for their cha-cha performance, which you can watch below!

What else happened on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ last night? 

Aside from Inaba getting booed by the audience, the test of Dancing With the Stars soul night was pretty uneventful. No couple went home, and everyone scored relatively well. You can see every score below!

• Phaedra Parks and Val Chmerkovskiy scored 30/40 for their quickstep to “Think” by Aretha Franklin. 

• Ilona Maher and Alan Bersten also scored 30/40 after performing the foxtrot to LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade.” 

• Eric Roberts and Britt Stewart also performed the foxtrot and they received 24/40 points. 

• Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold scored 30/40 points for their quickstep to “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder. 

• Then came Brooks Nader and Gleb Savchenko, who danced the Rumba and scored 28/40 points in total. 

• Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson took home the second-highest score of the night after receiving a 34/40 for their jive to “Shout” by the Isley Brothers. 

• The foxtrot was then again performed by Danny Amendola and Witney Carson, who would earn a final score of 30/40. 

• The lowest score of the night went to Reginald VelJohnson and Emma Slater, who danced the foxtrot to Johnny Nash's “I Can See Clearly Now,” earning them 21/40 points total. 

• Jenn Tran and Sasha Farber continued to shine with their chemistry and earned 31/40 points for their Viennese waltz. 

• Finally, Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong performed a cha-cha to “It’s Tricky" by Run-DMC and were awarded 36/40 points, making them the highest-scoring couple of the night. 

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