Carrie Ann Inaba is getting real about the challenges of being the only female judge on Dancing With the Stars.
“There have been times where I’ve almost walked away,” Inaba, 55, said at the Variety Women Of Reality TV event in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, November 29, per footage shared via social media. “As the only female judge for most of the seasons, I get a lot more hate than the men do.”
Inaba got emotional alongside fellow “Legacy Panel” members Cirie Fields, Kyle Richards, Kandi Burruss, Sasha Colby and Jenni “JWoww” Farley. “I’m the judge who cries, yes that’s true,” Inaba said while tearing up. “People doubt what I say. … I feel like I have to fight harder for my opinion to be honored.”
The inaugural Women of Reality TV event coincides with the debut of Variety’s Most Powerful Women on Reality TV impact list, on which Inaba is featured as an honoree.
“I appreciate that you guys are having this moment for the women in the business,” Inaba added. “We’re all carrying a load that’s a little different and I feel that it’s such an honor that you guys see that.”
Inaba has been a DWTS judge since its debut in 2005 and is not afraid to give bold and honest critiques to contestants. “The biggest misconception about me is that what I do is easy. I don’t know many people in this business who have kept a job for 32 seasons,” she told Variety earlier this month. “What I do is complex and it takes courage. I show up and speak my truth in front of millions of people, and then I am accountable for it.”
Inaba’s panel appearance came one day after she celebrated the remaining couples on DWTS after the tense semifinal performances on Tuesday, November 28. At the end of the episode, it was announced that all five of the pairs — Ariana Madix and Pasha Pashkov, Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy, Charity Lawson and Artem Chigvintsev, Jason Mraz and Daniella Karagach and Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber — would be competing for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy in the season 32 finale.
“It was an exciting ending to a spectacular and quite emotional semifinal,” Inaba told Entertainment Weekly after Tuesday’s live show. “This is the first time we are having five couples in the finale which makes for a very competitive final round of dancing.”
Inaba is joined by fellow judges Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli. Following the big semifinals twist, cohost Julianne Hough informed viewers, “All of the judges’ scores and viewers’ votes from tonight will carry over to next week’s scores and votes to determine our new champions.”
The Dancing With the Stars season 32 finale airs on ABC Tuesday, December 5, at 8 p.m. ET.
