Carrie Ann Inaba News

Our good friends at BuddyTV recently chatted with Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba. Here's what that show's version of Paula Abdul had to say:

Were you pleased with the outcome of the season?
Yes. I was. You know, I'm always pleased with how things turn out on that show because I think it's such a great experience to have the judges vote as well as the audience vote. And I'm never disappointed, and this year, once again, I was not disappointed. And I was really happy that Kristi [Yamaguchi] won.

Yeah, Kristi and Mark [Ballas], just right out of the gate, they were really great. At least on TV, it looked like they were just so much better than the competition. What was it like live?
I think that throughout the competition, it was pretty close between Jason [Taylor], Cristian [de la Fuente] and maybe Mario, and Kristi. Those were the top four couples.

And then, the last night of competition, when they did the head-to-head cha cha, where they all danced part of one routine to the cha cha, you really got to see that Kristi was kind of head and shoulders above the rest, you know? She made it very obvious that she was the one who deserved to win the competition.

Read the full interview with Inaba now.

Carrie Ann Inaba has high hopes for her new show. Just look at which program she recently compared it to:

"It's a little bit more like American Idol," said the Dancing with the Stars judge. "This is really about kids pursuing their dreams. That mentoring aspect is important."

Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann, which will follow the two Dancing with the Stars judges as they lead their respective teams of singers and dancers against one another for home viewer votes, premieres on Monday, January on ABC.

"I'm excited - but I'm not going to lie - it scares me," Inaba added.

When she's not being yelled at by Tony Dovolani, Carrie Ann Inaba is yearning for a child with boyfriend Artem Chigvintsev.

"I'm 39, going on 40, and he's 25," the Dancing with the Stars judge recently said on The View. "And he's a good guy. But you know, I do worry, because I'm getting to the age where I'm thinking about having children. And we've only been dating for a year and a half, and it's like, ‘Do I have to start pressuring him into that conversation?' And so we have been talking about it, because I do feel like something is ticking."

Of course, the conversation isn't simple. Because she and Chigvintsev are at different stages in their careers and in their lives, Inaba is simply hoping to find a solution.

"I'm more the bread-winner right now, but I actually think that things will change," the judge said, sort of egotistically. "And I'm hoping they will, because I just can't wait to get pregnant, sit home and eat potato chips and not go to work anymore. I'm dying for that."

Dancing with the Stars? More like Fighting Between the Professionals!

Tony Dovolani is far from pleased about the comments of judge Carrie Ann Inaba; specifically, he's steamed about her referring to the "lifts" that Dovolani and his partner Jane Seymour were called out for during their October 15 performance.

"She does not understand what ballroom dancing is," Dovolani told People magazine "She's never done it herself."

The professional went on to say that lifts are not easy to qualify; they fall into a dancing "gray area."

"She's the inappropriate judge to pick on the lifts," Dovolani said. "She does not have a ballroom background... She really comes from the hip-hop world. While we have the utmost respect for her as a dancer - it's not as a ballroom dancer."

Dovolani added it's not as if Inaba doesn't know how he feels about the matter, as he told the publication that he presented her with a ballroom rule book the day after she criticized the couple's waltz for containing illegal lifts.

"Because she does not know anything about ballroom, I figured she should at least read the rule book," he said. "I highlighted the parts I wanted her to read including the description of what a lift is."

Her response?

"She laughed about it and gave me the finger," Dovolani said. "I thought it was a very ladylike gesture. I laughed because I thought I hit home. And then I paid for it [last] week because we got the lowest score from her."

Last night, meanwhile, Seymour was sick with food poisoning, possibly saving this couple from elimination? Who was voted off?

Sabrina Bryan, in an absolute shocker.

Don't tell Apolo Anton Ohno. But Carrie Ann Inaba told People magazine a secret recently:

"For me, this is my personal favorite season," Inaba said, "because everybody's got this joy about them when they're dancing."

So, can the Dancing with the Stars judge crown a winner? Not just yet. But she does have some favorites, of course.

"I'm so proud of them all," she said of the dancing stars. "[Sabrina Bryan is]obviously doing really well with the marks, and she's just a tiger out there, and Helio Castroneves kind of touches your heart so, who knows?"

Inaba has also been impressed so far with Jane Seymour "even though she threw a lift in last time and I took some points off, it was her mother's birthday, and her mother recently passed away, so I give her a lot of credit, because she's just an amazing trooper."

As far as this season's dark horse?

Carrie goes with Cameron Mathison from All My Children.

"We didn't expect him to do so well. He had a slow start, but now he's catching up to the pack. He came out with the "Superman" number, ripped off his sleeves, and I'm sure that every woman in America was kind of like, ‘Woo-hoo!' I think they all voted for him last week."

Now that Cheryl Burke has been voted off this year's Dancing with the Stars (along with partner Wayne Newton), hopefully she'll find more time to pose for Stuff magazine.

The professional dancer, along with judge Carrie Ann Inaba, proves in this pictorial that she has a number of talents away from the TV cameras, as well.

Hot damn.

As a judge on Dancing with the Stars, Carrie Ann Inaba takes copious notes during performances.

Following a show during which both Laila Ali and Joey Fatone racked up perfect 30s, here's a look at what Carrie Ann jotted down as they danced:

Laila Ali: "I‘m so happy that Laila showed us the beef!" says Inaba. "She finally let loose. I knew she had it in her. And it wasn't in the way I thought she would do it. I thought it would be this very powerful and dramatic thing. But it was very light and elegant and graceful."

Apolo Anton Ohno: "Apolo had a rough night tonight," says Inaba. "I think Len was a little hard on him for the first round [the fox trot]. But Len is the ballroom expert, so maybe he saw things that Bruno and I didn't. But I think that critique rattled Apolo a little bit. Tonight, he had a bit of the Ian syndrome, in that he was in his head. And then he was off rhythm, he was dancing ahead of the beat, and he and Julianne weren't connecting. They were out of sorts with each other."

Joey Fatone: "Joey decided he was going to leave Apolo and Laila in the dust. He finally realized we're getting close to the end and now he's giving 100 percent. It's amazing he's done so well up until now. I feel like he's only been giving 85 percent."

Ian Ziering: "Ian finally came out of his shell," says Inaba. "Authenticity reads so well on this show. When Ian's not comfortable, it shows. Tonight he decided, ‘You know what? I have nothing to lose.' He had a few missteps. But we're going to see a lot of growth in him. And he saw how the people reacted so I think it's going to be a little addictive for him."

Billy Ray Cyrus: "I love him for trying and for his courage and his passion," says Inaba. "He really is trying to get an ‘8.' And you know what? If he sticks around, if he just gives us a little more content, he could get it. Because he really does have something magical about him."

John Ratzenberger: "I thought he did really, really well," says Inaba. "Ballroom dancing is for all ages and of all the older gentlemen we've had on this show, he's really the best one. George Hamilton and Jerry Springer wowed us with their charisma and theatrics, but John has actually got the frame and is doing it properly. In a real ballroom dance competition, he would do quite well."