Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson are responding after Carrie Ann Inaba delivered one of the most talked-about critiques of Dancing With the Stars Season 35.
The moment came during Mariah Carey Night, when Guillermo and Witney performed a Samba to “Obsessed.”
Although the pair once again entertained the ballroom, the judges remained critical of Guillermo’s technique, ultimately awarding the couple just 13 out of 30 — the lowest score of the night.
But it wasn’t simply the score that got people talking.
Carrie Ann questioned something viewers had rarely heard criticized about Guillermo before: his personality.
“What was going on?” she asked after the dance before questioning where his usual joy had gone.
Carrie Ann said she felt Guillermo was “dimming” his light during the performance.
The ballroom immediately reacted.
Loud boos erupted from the audience, forcing Carrie Ann to defend the criticism by reminding the crowd that judging the performances was her job.
She then clarified that she believed Guillermo possessed a natural quality that made audiences connect with him and said she didn’t want him to lose that spark in future routines.
After the show, Guillermo appeared considerably less bothered by the criticism than some viewers.
Instead of firing back at Carrie Ann, he admitted that the Samba had simply been difficult.
Guillermo explained that there were a lot of steps to remember and acknowledged that the routine had been especially challenging for him that week.
But he also made one thing clear: he believed he had given everything he could.
“I did my best,” he said while pointing to Witney as someone who could confirm how hard he had worked.
Witney, however, had a much stronger reaction to Carrie Ann’s suggestion that Guillermo had lost his joy.
She said she “disagreed completely.”
According to Witney, Guillermo’s more serious expression wasn’t evidence that his personality had disappeared.
It was part of the performance.
The professional dancer explained that they had been trying to portray the attitude of a diva while performing to Mariah Carey’s “Obsessed,” meaning Guillermo wasn’t supposed to deliver exactly the same cheerful character viewers normally see from him.
Witney later expanded on the criticism, arguing that Guillermo’s personality remains visible regardless of the character he is asked to portray.
She said his light doesn’t disappear simply because he shows a different side of himself during one routine.
In a separate interview, Witney went even further and described Carrie Ann’s criticism as an “out of pocket” comment.
Guillermo seemed appreciative that his professional partner immediately defended him.
He praised Witney and explained that he trusts her choreography completely, joking that whatever she asks him to do during a routine, he follows her instructions.
And Carrie Ann wasn’t the only judge evaluating Guillermo that night.
Derek Hough acknowledged the technical problems but said the routine was still completely true to Guillermo’s personality, while Bruno Tonioli jokingly described him as a “national obsession.”
The scoring still left Guillermo and Witney at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Yet once again, their popularity with viewers helped them survive when the judges’ scores were combined with the public vote.
Ciara Miller and Brandon Armstrong were eliminated instead despite earning 21 points for their Jazz routine.
That result means Guillermo and Witney will return for another week — and Witney has repeatedly defended the idea that her partner deserves to remain in the competition.
She has said Guillermo practices whenever he has spare time, continues working even while she takes breaks during rehearsals and genuinely wants to improve despite beginning the competition without the technical ability of several other contestants.
So while Carrie Ann believed something about Guillermo looked different on Mariah Carey Night, his partner saw the performance very differently.
Guillermo treated the criticism as another part of learning to dance.
Witney defended the artistic choice behind his performance.
And after another dramatic elimination, the viewers made their opinion clear in the most important way possible — Guillermo Rodriguez is still dancing.
