“Dancing” Pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy Clashes with Judge Len Goodman

Carrie Ann Inaba tells Maks to stop being "disrespectful"

The ballroom nearly became a brawl room on Broadway week.

On Monday’s “Dancing with the Stars,” professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy butted heads with head judge Len Goodman, suggesting at one point that Goodman should leave the show.

At issue was the "Rent" rumba Chmerkovskiy had just performed with U.S. soccer star Hope Solo. Goodman hated it.

The veteran judge prefaced his criticism by saying he had “never lost faith” in Solo, a reference to Chmerkovskiy's  -- motivational? -- declaration during practice that he was the only one still in Solo's corner.

Goodman said Solo's rumba had been her “worst dance of the season” and Chmerkovskiy deserved “half the fault” for having choreographed the dance. Even Solo's boots came up for criticism.

Chmerkovskiy protested that the “Dancing” audience was on their side, leading Goodman to defend his critique by citing his "nearly 50 years" in the business.

"Maybe you need to get out," Chmerkovskiy said.

“Don’t be disrespectful,” judge Carrie Ann Inaba shot back.

Later, Chmerkovskiy was given a chance to make nice, but doubled down on the criticism.

“With all due respect this is my show. I helped make it,” he said.  Chmerkovskiy said some dance pairings were being judged on “effort” and others on their “heel leads.”

At the end of the night, Solo and Chmerkovskiy landed second from bottom on the leaderboard with 20 points out of 30, just one point ahead of Chaz Bono and pro-partner Lacey Schwimmer.

Here’s how the rest of the bunch fared on Week 6 going into Tuesday’s elimination:

J.R. Martinez & Karina Smirnoff: 29
Ricki Lake & Derek Hough: 29
Nancy Grace & Tristan MacManus: 24
David Arquette & Kym Johnson: 23
Rob Kardashian & Cheryl Burke: 22
 

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