Maksim Chmerkovskiy News

Dancing With the Stars favorite Maksim Chmerkovskiy claims a woman won't win the hit series because, frankly, women don't vote for other women.

Maksim may have a point there, but still, don't you think Kristi Yamaguchi has a decent shot this season? Have you seen a girl spin like she did last week?

Read Maksim's interview with Entertainment Weekly for more insight on Dancing With the Stars from a man who knows the ins and outs of the show like no other.

Tonight, Dancing With the Stars returns with a new episode at 8 p.m. on ABC. Who will deliver the night's top performances? We'll be watching for sure!

Maksim Chmerkovskiy may not be Dancing with the Stars this season, but the hunky professional can still take a look at the favorites on it.

That' exactly what he did during a recent interview with TV Guide:

Cristián de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke
[Cristián de la Fuente is] a good-looking dude, and Latin, and has that swagger," says Maksim. "And [two-time champion] Cheryl knows how to do her thing, getting people to the finals."

Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska
Tackling the ballroom floor is nothing new for an athlete "I really like Jason," says Chmerkovskiy. "He and Edyta are going to do great together and make a beautiful couple."

Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas
The Olympic gold-medalist very well could have the mettle (get it?!?) to go far in the competition. "This pairing is one of the better ones," Maksim opines, "because they're alike. Kristi's quick and [Mark Ballas] is quick."

Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Dovolani
The matchup of the diminutive Hairspray star and Dovolani makes Maks more than skeptical. "She's like five feet [tall] and she's with a [six-foot] guy! In ballroom, we like the couple to be more the same height.

Monica Seles and Jonathan Roberts
On that same note, Maksim says the leggy tennis pro should ace the early rounds in the company of Roberts. "Monica is a proven athlete, trained and physically able. I like her pairing with Jonathan because she's tall and he's tall. They're a good match."

It started out as a rumor. Then, it was denied.

Now, however, it appears to be true: Maksim Chmerkovskiy will be taking a season off from Dancing with the Stars.

"He just needs a break," an ABC spokesperson said of the 28-year old hunk. "He is part of the Dancing family, and he will be back."

Last December, Chmerkovskiy told People magazine that he was feeling burnt-out after the show's grueling schedule.

"After coming down from two seasons back-to-back, 10 weeks each season â€" 14 weeks, if you count all of the rehearsals â€" it puts a lot of pressure on a person and it takes its toll," Chmerkovskiy said.

Maksim may appear on several of Dancing with the Stars's results shows when the pros are featured in group-choreographed dances. It's also very likely he will be back for the seventh season.

Meantime, fans can still catch Chmerkovskiy on All My Children on February 26.

On February 26, Maksim Chmerkovskiy will guest star on the soap opera All My Children. The show's story line calls for this Dancing with the Stars hunk to teach characters how to pole dance.

Here's a look at Maks on set:

He's already a Dancing with the Stars hunk.

Now, Maksim Chmerkovskiy is hoping to become a soap opera stud.

The professional dancer will guest star on an upcoming episode of ABC's All My Children, allowing him to appear alongside Season 5 contestant Cameron Mathison.

In the February 26 episode, Chmerkovskiy will play himself, as he teaches the women of Fusion pole-dancing at the bequest of Greenlee (Rebecca Budig), who has decided that her staff needs a fun diversion.

Cue the arrival of Mathison's Ryan, who, ABC teases, "will get inspired seeing the Fusion women dancing the pole." Might this forecast a future of stripping for Mathison? Female viewers of the show can only hope so!

Phew.

Just a few days after railing against Hollywood and claiming he wouldn't return to Dancing with the Stars, Maksim Chmerkovskiy has changed his mind.

"When I read the article, I was like, 'ah… what have I said?' It was very tear-jerky for me," the hunky professional said. "I'm honored to be part of this show, and the most important thing is the promotion of ballroom dance.

When I had a free moment, I read all the e-mails and looked at my fan site and people were just devastated, to say the least. I didn't mean to do that."

After being overwhelmed by fan support, Chmerkovskiy says those in his corner can rest assured: he'll back next season!

"I never had fans outside of my family. People were tuning in to see what I was going to do next, and that, to me, is mind-boggling. I'm not used to that kind of attention. In our ballroom world, we don't have fans like that. But a lot of people, when they found out that I was supposedly quitting the show, there was a ridiculous amount of support."

We hope you enjoyed Maksim Chmerkovskiy on Dancing with the Stars this season. And why is that?

Because you won't be seeing him on the reality competition again.

As relayed to TV Guide, Maks said "the 25 million viewers are going to remember me whether I'm there or not," referring to his decision to skip out on season six, which begins in March.

So, why would Chmerkovskiy abandom the show that made him famous in the first place? He actually blames the seedy Hollywood scene.

"This is a very lucrative world," he said. "And I spent some time here just looking around and going, ‘Wow, this is an amazing house.' But I'm a very analytical person. And right away, I looked past the curtains and I saw the drugs and the difficult lifestyles and the failed marriages. And I saw absolutely no family values â€" and that is the most important thing."

Any chance he was referring to Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough supposedly dating? Helio had been engaged, after all.

We'll never know, but Maksim was at least clear that he loves his last two partners on the show: Laila Ali and Melanie Brown.

"It's really important to me to maintain the relationship after the show," he said. "With Laila, I love her. But it didn't work because she's a very private, very reserved person. But this season, with Mel, this is a person I'll be able to call any time and say, ‘Hey, I'm in town. Let's have dinner.'"

The fact that Helio Castroneves won the title on Dancing with the Stars last night may be the least interesting result from the evening.

We're learned today that Helio's fiancee, Aliette Vazquez, has called off the couple's engagement. The pair has been together for over six years. Moreover...

Mark Ballas was actually rushed to the hospital after he injured his arm during the Cha Cha performance with partner - and girlfriend - Sabrina Bryan. Those with a keen eye may have noticed that a little over half way through the dance Mark abruptly stopped using his left arm. At one point, you could see him whispher something to Sabrina.

We hope he's okay.

We also hope Maksim Chmerkovskiy wasn't serious when he told Extra last night that he may be through with the show.

"If this is the limit of where I can get in a show, then let it be," Maks said. "I'm satisfied and moving on."

Maksim Chmerkovskiy continues to hold nothing back when it comes to his Dancing with the Stars competition; or, to be specific, when it comes to Marie Osmond.

The handsome professional was critical of her selection to act as a "living doll" during the freestyle performance on last night's show.

"I guess she came out trying to do something... Whatever it is, I guess it's between her and [Jonathan Roberts}. But nobody else knows what it is," Dancing professional Maksim Chmerkovskiy told OK! Weekly after the broadcast.

Maks even said he thought the entire routine was meant as nothing more than an advertisement for Marie's line of dolls.

"I guess it was a big doll company promotion," Chmerkovskiy added.

Moreover, Melanie Brown's partner didn't shy away from similar, negative comments he made last week regarding Osmond.

"I just said what everybody else was thinking," Chmerkovskiy said. "To add to that, Marie is one of those people you can't find any flaws with. I have nothing but the utmost respect for her. God knows this woman went through a lot this season. But, having said that, this is a dance show."

It's hard to argue with any of these points, isn't it?

Maksim Chmerkovskiy is more than just a pretty face and a dancing talent: he's refreshingly honest.

When asked by Extra if the right person (Jennie Garth) was voted out of Dancing with the Stars last week, Chmerkovskiy replied:

"I think Jennie was better than Marie Osmond," he said."Frankly, I think there are a lot of other people better than Marie."

As for who should be crowned this year's champion, Maks isn't shy about tooting his own partner's horn: Melanie Brown, "should win," he said, noting "she's hands down the best dancer left... [the] most capable, most natural."

Alas, as often happens with reality contests, true talent can get trumped.

"History shows [Dancing's celeb champ is] either a cute man or somebody with a huge fan base and I think Marie has both Helio and Mel's fan base combined times five."

We'll find out this week!