Maksim Chmerkovskiy will return to 'Dancing With The Stars'... as a guest judge
Maksim Chmerkovskiy will appear on the show Nov. 18 to judge the contest's semi-finals round. Maksim Chmerkovskiy appeared on many seasons of the reality show as a professional dancer.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy (l.) and Kirstie Alley (r.) perform on 'Dancing With The Stars.'
Adam Taylor/ABC/AP
Former “Dancing with the Stars” performer Maksim Chmerkovskiy will be returning to the show as a guest judge for the ABC show’s semi-final round on Nov. 18, according to ABC.
Chmerkovskiy will sit at the judges’ table alongside Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli, and Carrie Ann Inaba.
The theme of the semifinals at which Chmerkovskiy will judge is “plugged/unplugged,” with the remaining dancers performing a paso doble, jazz, tango, or cha-cha routine to a normal version of their chosen song, according to ABC writer Jason Leung. The partners will then perform an Argentine tango, rumba, or Viennese waltz to an acoustic version of that same song.
According to Leung, this is the first time the “plugged/unplugged” theme will have been used on the show.
The night will also include a number performed by the remaining professional dancers that will be choreographed by Mandy Moore. Musicians Kerli and Noah Guthrie will perform songs during the “unplugged section,” according to Leung, with Kerli performing a version of the Fall Out Boy song “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ‘Em Up)” and Guthrie singing a cover of LMFAO’s song “Sexy and I Know It.”
Chmerkovskiy competed on “Dancing” as a professional dancer for most of the iterations of the show and won second place twice and third place twice.
The ABC reality competition, which began in 2005 and is based on the British reality program “Strictly Come Dancing,” is currently airing its seventeenth iteration and five couples remain. “High School Musical” actor Corbin Bleu and dancer Karina Smirnoff, comedian Bill Engvall and dancer Emma Slater, “The Osbournes” star Jack Osbourne and dancer Cheryl Burke, “The King of Queens” actress Leah Remini and dancer Tony Dovolani, and “Glee” actress Amber Riley and dancer Derek Hough will be competing in the semi-finals round of the show.