Derek Hough Upset With ‘DWTS’ For Making Nastia Liukin Look Bad
Derek Hough is mighty displeased with how the Dancing with the Stars producers are treating Nastia Liukin — he’d probably give them the thumbs down if he was still in character as his gladiator-judging Roman king from last week’s America’s Choice dance.
Last Monday, a video package was shown that featured Nastia Liukin getting frustrated while rehearsing for her trio jive routine with Derek Hough and Sasha Farber. The former Olympic gymnast had a good reason to be a bit testy — she was exhausted, she was trying to divide her attention between both of her partners, and the producers kept trying to pepper her with questions. She refused to talk about her feelings, and she eventually told Derek that she was done for the day.
In his latest TV Guide blog, Derek Hough criticized the Dancing with the Stars producers for trying to portray Nastia in a bad light after causing her so much distress.
“The first day of rehearsal we had rehearsed so hard, but in the eighth hour of rehearsal, she was tired and the producer was asking her a question that had nothing to do with the show and what we were doing,” Derek wrote. “She was like, ‘I’m tired.’ They kept pushing her because they wanted her to react and she did, and that’s what they played.”
Derek was especially upset because last week was a very special week for the dancer and his partner — it was the first week that Derek and Nastia actually had time to bond. Oddly enough, Derek’s injuries brought the couple closer together by diminishing his dancing abilities. He could no longer dance in the Spring Spectacular, so he had more time to spend with Nastia.
According to Derek, Nastia was also upset by the video package.
“What’s more ridiculous is I would understand it is if it we actually had an argument last week, but we’ve never had an argument. On Tuesday, I saw that Nastia was still upset about it and I felt like there was something else there.”
However, Derek Hough and Nastia Liukin aren’t going to let a little manufactured drama take them down — they made lemons out of lemonade by using that negative experience to build on their growing bond. They had a long talk in Derek’s trailer, and it led to a “massive breakthrough.”
“I opened up to her and I think that made her feel safe. And I think that helped her open up to me. It was a massive breakthrough.”
According to Just Jared, Derek Hough also took to Instagram to express his displeasure with the Dancing with the Stars producers and his admiration for Nastia Liukin.
“Production chose to go with a moment that lasted 2 seconds at the end of an 8 hour rehearsal, rather than a full week of joy, love and non stop laughter for our package,” Derek captioned the photo below.
“Nastia has been incredibly gracious, humble, hardworking, kind, loving, thoughtful, resilient, adaptive, funny and over all a beautiful human being. I’m all for positivity, love and good energy and so is Nastia. I really hope you guys could see the reality of this couple.”
Luckily, Derek and Nastia’s nasty experience with the DWTS producers didn’t stop them from making it to the semifinals, and the judges awarded a perfect score to the jive that gave Nastia so much grief.
Speaking of the judges, the Inquisitr previously reported that Len and the gang will rule the ballroom next Monday — the judges get to choose the couples’ dance styles, outfits, and songs. Len Goodman is in charge of Nastia and Derek’s routine.
Derek’s range of movement is still pretty limited, so perhaps Len will try to choose a dance style that suits Derek’s current capabilities. Regardless of what Len decides, Nastia will still have to dance with Sasha Farber — her second dance is a quickstep, and Derek says that he definitely won’t be able to do that routine.
Do you think Derek Hough is right to be upset with the way the Dancing with the Stars producers treated Nastia Liukin?
[Images via Instagram]
