{
  "id": 15286907,
  "title": "Dancing With The Stars pro suspended for a week after joking about \"Fresh Prince\"-ing one of his co-workers",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/17/dancing-with-the-stars-pro-suspended-for-a-week-after-joking-about",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-17T20:45:51.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The A.V. Club",
    "slug": "the-a-v-club",
    "url": "https://www.avclub.com/dancing-with-the-stars-pro-suspended-after-will-smith-joke"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Val Chmerkovskiy, a professional dancer on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, has been suspended for a week by producer BBC Studios following a TikTok post. The dancer made a joke referencing Will Smith's behavior at the 2022 Oscars, saying, \"You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,\" in response to judge Carrie Ann Inaba's criticism of his wife’s performance. Chmerkovskiy later apologized to Inaba and his dance partner, Jenna Dewan, in an Instagram Story, explaining that his initial post was driven by a desire to defend his wife and that he regretted referencing the Oscars incident without fully considering its implications.",
  "summary": "Dancing With The Stars pro Val Chmerkovskiy has been suspended for a week after making a Will Smith Oscars joke about one of his co-workers.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}