The Beef Between Derek Hough And Maksim Chmerkovskiy Explained

"Dancing With the Stars" pros Derek Hough and Maksim Chmerkovskiy became involved in a nasty public dispute. The drama started in October 2011 after Chmerkovskiy traded words with the late Len Goodman over his harsh critiques of his partner, Hope Solo. Among other things, Goodman called Solo's performance that week her "worst dance of the whole season." As the crowd erupted into boos for Goodman, Chmerkovskiy attempted to rally even more support for Solo. Goodman then turned his critique towards Chmerkovskiy, placing half the blame for the performance on him. After Chmerkovskiy retreated backstage, he went into a lengthy diatribe about Goodman and called "DWTS" his show.

The next week, Us Weekly published comments from Hough, who'd spoken out against Chmerkovskiy's response. "I had a laugh about that [comment]," Hough shared with the publication. "I was looking at the plaque upstairs and... well, never mind," added Hough referring to the fact that, at the time, Chmerkovskiy had not yet won a mirror ball trophy (though he went on to went Season 18). The outlet also cited an anonymous source who claimed that Hough and Chmerkovskiy "hate each other." Of course, this wasn't the end of Hough and Chmerkovskiy's "DWTS" feud by a long shot.

Despite Derek Hough's comments, he and Maksim Chmerkovskiy worked hard to put on a united front amid the rumors of their discontent. After posing together while holding a physical copy of the Us Weekly issue, the "DWTS" alum also participated in an Extra TV interview to assure fans that things were all good. Chmerkovskiy sarcastically blamed the rumors on the media spinning reality. He also revealed that he sometimes wanted to ask Hough about these rumors as they hung out at a spot called Playhouse. Meanwhile, Hough admitted that he came up with the idea to pose together. "Cause you know what ... I don't like conflict, I don't like confrontation," Hough explained to the reporter. "And the fact that people are ... writing stuff like that, it's like come on, let's not be like that."

Hough tried to keep the love fest going by claiming that he and Chmerkovskiy were on good terms. "Our relationship is pretty similar to how it's always been," shared Hough with Access Hollywood (via Digital Spy). "We've known each other for many, many years." He continued, "This is a television show, and I understand that people want to see drama where there's not..." Hough also revealed that he and his rumored rival had just gone out the previous night. Although all of that sounded well and good, Chmerkovskiy and Hough had a few more digs to throw at each other. Because, of course, they did.

Things weren't quite as settled between Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Derek Hough as they wanted fans to believe. Not that it wasn't obvious! Roughly one week before their November PR move, Chmerkovskiy took a major dig at Hough when he implied he'd had an unfair advantage over other professional dancers due to the celebs with whom he'd been paired. "Derek Hough has been very supportive of his personal career on the show," Chmerkovskiy shared on "Good Morning America" (via New York Daily News). "When you say judges have been generous, with all due respect, if I had Nicole Scherzinger followed by Jennifer Grey followed by Ricki Lake, I probably would not be very upset with the judges either." At the time, Hough had won "DWTS" three times.

While Hough appeared to ignore Chmerkovsky's first round of comments, he certainly clapped back in 2016 when his colleague made similar claims. "I've been very fortunate with partners. But it's not rigged," Hough shared with Us Weekly (via ABC). Hough also claimed that, even though producers eventually started paring him with dancers less likely to win, he still persevered. "Then I ended up winning," he added. "Whatever somebody says about me, that's a reflection on how they feel and how they are. I just say, 'Look, I'm putting in the work.'" In the same interview, Chmerkovskiy joked that he wasn't in a rivalry with Hough, implying that it was the opposite. 

The jury is still out on that one.