Dancing With the Stars’ Carrie Ann Inaba Claps Back at Critics With Help From Taylor Swift

Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba shared a Taylor Swift-inspired message to those who accused her of unfairly scoring celebrity contestants on the ABC dance competition.

By Gabrielle Chung Oct 23, 2025 2:36 AM
| Updated Oct 23, 2025 2:37 AM
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Watch: ‘Dancing With the Stars' Carrie Ann Inaba Reacts to Scoring Criticism

Carrie Ann Inaba is shaking off her haters.

Amid criticism over of her scoring decisions, the Dancing With the Stars judge shared a cheeky video of herself lip-syncing to Taylor Swift's "Actually Romantic"—a song about a one-sided feud—while casually putting on lip gloss.

"It's actually sweet / All the time you've spent on me," Carrie Ann mouthed along to the Life of a Showgirl track in an Oct. 22 Instagram post. "It's honestly wild / All the effort you've put in."

And her fans picked up on the subtle clapback, with DWTS co-host Julianne Hough writing in the comments, "THIS!!!!"

"Love u," Carrie Ann replied. "I can't wait for our catch up!"

This was not the first time the 57-year-old defended her judging style on the ABC dance competition. When one Instagram user accused her of favoring Dylan Efron over Robert Irwin with her scores on the Oct. 14 episode, she wrote back that it was "okay to disagree."

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Dancing With the Stars' Carrie Ann Inaba Reacts to Scoring Criticism

“That’s what makes our show great," Carrie Ann noted, referencing how judges' scores and fan votes are taken into consideration during eliminations. "You have a say in the matter. We want you to vote for what you love and believe in."

And while Pasha Pashkov—whose routines with celeb partner Danielle Fishel received a lukewarm reception from Carrie Ann earlier in the season—did admit that some of her feedback sounded "unfair," he supported the judge against online backlash.

"Judges have the hardest job," the pro dancer told E! News after the Oct. 21 episode. "It's one thing to give your opinion in a comment online or just in passing, but to then actually make that decision and pick up that number in front of millions of people watching—knowing that you might get a backlash on it—is not easy."

Disney/Andrew Eccles

In fact, Danielle said she appreciates Carrie Ann's "direct" approach to judging. As the Boy Meets World alum shared in her E! interview, “Carrie Ann saying that our dances look the same, we walked out of here and we said, ‘All right, next week, we will give her what she asked for.'"

That's why she said DWTS contestants can't "let critiques go to your head."

"Whenever it's over, it's over," she noted. "But in the meantime, you are doing it."

Read on to get to know the DWTS season 34 cast.

Baron Davis

Partnered with Britt Stewart

Jennifer Affleck 

Partnered with Jan Ravnik

Alix Earle 

Partnered with Valentin Chmerkovski

Dylan Efron

Partnered with Daniella Karagach 

Corey Feldman

Partnered with Jenna Johnson

Elaine Hendrix 

Partnered with Alan Bersten

Robert Irwin 

Partnered with Witney Carson

Jordan Chiles 

Partnered with Ezra Sosa

Scott Hoying 

Partnered with Rylee Arnold

Whitney Leavitt

Partnered with Mark Ballas

Hilaria Baldwin

Partnered with Gleb Savchenko 

Andy Richter

Partnered with Emma Slater

Danielle Fishel

Partnered with Pasha Pashkov 

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