As we recently reported, Maksim Chmerkovskiy was not feeling the Dancing with the Stars love after he and Melanie Brown were defeated by Julianne Hough and Helio Castroneves in the finale. Understandably disappointed, directly following the final show, he made some comments that indicated he was going to leave the show to pursue other opportunities.
Well, as predicted in that same article, a cooler head did, in fact, prevail, and Maks has reconsidered his statement.
He says now that he was mainly tired after the rigors of competition, and homesick from being away from his Edgewater, New Jersey, home. There were two seasons of Dancing with the Stars in 2007, so he was actually away from his home base for six months.
“Being away from home for so long was taking its toll,” Maks told TV Guide. “I’m one of those people who get very homesick and needs to recharge the batteries. I’ve missed all the Hanukkah parties and all the dinners. I haven’t seen my family in four months.”
Part of his reaction was also due to the fatigue and frustration related to the challenges related to working with a star like Melanie Brown, whose schedule was even more restrictive than most stars due to her impending tour with the Spice Girls. He had to not only create new choreography each week but try to teach it to Mel literally in mere hours instead of days. No doubt coming so close to a win after such a grueling work schedule was especially disheartening.
When he realized the impact his hasty words had, he seemed to become truly remorseful. He said, “I was like, ‘ah… what have I said?’ It was very tear-jerky for me…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 fansite and people were just devastated, to say the least. I didn’t mean to do that.”
It would appear that Maks is still trying to absorb and understand that his participation in a show like Dancing with the Stars means what he says and does reverberate beyond his own personal life. “I don’t know how to deal with this,” he said. “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.”
So he does hope to return to the show, saying, “Dancing with the Stars opened up all the doors and all the opportunities…I don’t want to change anything about it.” His many fans would seem to feel the same!
– Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: TV Guide
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
