Everything Cheryl Burke Has Said About Her ‘DWTS’ Tenure Through the Years: Movement Is An ‘Essential Part of My Life’

Cheryl Burke has been a Dancing With the Stars staple through the years — even earning the coveted mirror ball trophy twice.

The California native, after a successful career as a competitive ballroom dancer, joined the DWTS pro lineup in 2006 for season 2. Burke’s first season proved to be lucky, as she and Drew Lachey ultimately won the competition. The Dance Moms alum took home her second trophy the next year, dancing with NFL star Emmitt Smith.

“Ballroom dancing is a technical sport. I think it’s important that [the judges] get the last final say because I think it’s important that everyone understands why [they give certain scores],” the choreographer wrote in a September 2019 blog for Us Weekly about the competition series amid frequent judge criticism. “If someone’s not technically sound or even close to being as good of a dancer as the other couple, they should be the ones going home.”

She added at the time: “If I were a judge, I think I’d probably be the same way [as Len Goodman] because we’re being told that we’re bringing this back to ballroom and then that separates everybody. I felt like every dance last season was a freestyle. As a choreographer and as a professional dancer, you don’t know what to follow. I know the rules from the beginning of the competition when I started almost 14 years ago.”

After securing two DWTS championships, Burke continued teaching celebs to dance on the then-ABC broadcast. She has partnered with the likes of Ian Ziering, Gilles Marini, Chad Ochocinco, Rob Kardashian, Jack Osbourne, Ryan Lochte, Drew Carey, Terrell Owens, AJ McLean and Cody Rigsby. Burke and Smith attempted to recreate their season 3 win during season 15’s all-stars season but finished in fourth place instead.

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While the I Can Do That alum has found several lasting bonds in her past partnerships, not all pairings were seamless.

“My least favorite [partner] would be Ian Ziering. The fact that his name is not ‘ee-an’ and it’s ‘eye-an’ makes me want to throw up,” she said during an April 2019 appearance on Matt Weiss and Theo Von’s “Allegedly” podcast, referring to the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum. “Think of spending time with that for, like, eight to 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months. It made me want to slit my wrists. I was, like, crying to the executives. I was like, ‘Is there any way to please just eliminate us?’ They’re like, ‘We can’t. We can’t do that.’ And I swear, every time I asked, we just kept going. We would last till the end.”

Burke has since apologized for her candid remarks, noting she should have not made a joke about suicide.

While Burke’s partnership with Ziering was rocky, she’s had better luck with the Backstreet Boys singer and Sam Champion during seasons 30 and 31.

“With this season in particular, there’s peace along with the whole elimination process,” Burke exclusively told Us in October 2022 of dancing with the Good Morning America weatherman on DWTS season 31, the series’ first on Disney+. “Like, normally I’m a nervous, sweaty wreck, but with Sam, if I’m looking at the actual ability of all the celebrities? We are very blessed to still be in this competition, to be quite honest, and Sam knows that.”

Burke confirmed her DWTS retirement in November 2022, one day before performing her “farewell dance” on the season 31 finale.

Scroll below for Burke’s candid thoughts about her experience on DWTS:

Cheryl Burke has been a Dancing With the Stars staple through the years — even earning the coveted mirror ball trophy twice.

The California native, after a successful career as a competitive ballroom dancer, joined the DWTS pro lineup in 2006 for season 2. Burke’s first season proved to be lucky, as she and Drew Lachey ultimately won the competition. The Dance Moms alum took home her second trophy the next year, dancing with NFL star Emmitt Smith.

“Ballroom dancing is a technical sport. I think it’s important that [the judges] get the last final say because I think it’s important that everyone understands why [they give certain scores],” the choreographer wrote in a September 2019 blog for Us Weekly about the competition series amid frequent judge criticism. “If someone’s not technically sound or even close to being as good of a dancer as the other couple, they should be the ones going home.”

She added at the time: “If I were a judge, I think I’d probably be the same way [as Len Goodman] because we’re being told that we’re bringing this back to ballroom and then that separates everybody. I felt like every dance last season was a freestyle. As a choreographer and as a professional dancer, you don’t know what to follow. I know the rules from the beginning of the competition when I started almost 14 years ago.”

After securing two DWTS championships, Burke continued teaching celebs to dance on the then-ABC broadcast. She has partnered with the likes of Ian Ziering, Gilles Marini, Chad Ochocinco, Rob Kardashian, Jack Osbourne, Ryan Lochte, Drew Carey, Terrell Owens, AJ McLean and Cody Rigsby. Burke and Smith attempted to recreate their season 3 win during season 15’s all-stars season but finished in fourth place instead.

[sendtonews type="float" key="Rsp1fourkw-2832344-14453"]

While the I Can Do That alum has found several lasting bonds in her past partnerships, not all pairings were seamless.

“My least favorite [partner] would be Ian Ziering. The fact that his name is not ‘ee-an’ and it’s ‘eye-an’ makes me want to throw up,” she said during an April 2019 appearance on Matt Weiss and Theo Von’s “Allegedly” podcast, referring to the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum. “Think of spending time with that for, like, eight to 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months. It made me want to slit my wrists. I was, like, crying to the executives. I was like, ‘Is there any way to please just eliminate us?’ They’re like, ‘We can’t. We can’t do that.’ And I swear, every time I asked, we just kept going. We would last till the end.”

Burke has since apologized for her candid remarks, noting she should have not made a joke about suicide.

While Burke’s partnership with Ziering was rocky, she’s had better luck with the Backstreet Boys singer and Sam Champion during seasons 30 and 31.

“With this season in particular, there’s peace along with the whole elimination process,” Burke exclusively told Us in October 2022 of dancing with the Good Morning America weatherman on DWTS season 31, the series’ first on Disney+. “Like, normally I’m a nervous, sweaty wreck, but with Sam, if I’m looking at the actual ability of all the celebrities? We are very blessed to still be in this competition, to be quite honest, and Sam knows that.”

Burke confirmed her DWTS retirement in November 2022, one day before performing her “farewell dance” on the season 31 finale.

Scroll below for Burke’s candid thoughts about her experience on DWTS:

Burke announced her retirement as a DWTS pro on November 20, one day before the season 31 finale.

“Tomorrow night will officially be my final dance as a pro dancer on @dancingwiththestars. This has been one of the absolute hardest decisions of my life & I am also confident that it is the right one,” she wrote via Instagram. “This show has been my 2nd family since I was 21 years old. The cast, crew & fans have seen me through my highest highs & some of my lowest lows, & I honestly don’t know who I would be today without them.”

She continued: “I also know that it is time for me to begin the next phase of my career, although dance will always be a part of me. I am excited about the idea of evolving, about being challenged in new ways, having the ability to expand my commitment to mental health advocacy, focusing on my new found love for podcasting, & I’m ready to face the uncertainty (though it’s scary as s—t of what the future holds — I do have a few things up my sleeves though, so don’t worry 😉.”

As Burke competed on season 31, she’s been open about a potential DWTS retirement the following year.

“I’m at a point in my life right now where I don’t know exactly what my future holds. I’m going through a transition not just personally, but also in my career, which has left me living in uncertainty for the first time in over a decade,” Burke — who split from then-husband Matthew Lawrence that February — wrote in an essay for Us. “I’m trying to be OK with it instead of living in fear of the unknown. I know that dance and movement are an essential part of my life and mental health, but I’m ready to share these passions in new ways.”

“A lot of people have asked me if this is my last season. The answer to that question is likely yes, this is my last season — as a dancer that is,” Burke said during an episode of her “Burke in the Game” podcast after her elimination with Champion, noting she would be interested in becoming a cohost or judge. “To have been a part of a show for 26 seasons, it is hard for me [to leave] … I always come back, because, I guess, it’s really hard to say goodbye to a show and to a family that I’ve only known here in Los Angeles.”

During season 31, Champion and Burke consistently earned scores near the back of the pack — but she was happy with their dances.

“Every season is a lot more challenging than the previous season,” the “Pretty Messed Up” podcast cohost told Us in October after the pair narrowly escaped elimination. “Everybody’s so talented. Everyone’s got their own thing. And Sam and I are just really happy to be here.”

“I have body dysmorphia because I’m a dancer,” the ballroom champion said during an episode of the “HypchondriActor” podcast with Sean Hayes and Dr. Priyanka Wali. “I mean, tell me one dancer that doesn’t. … When I look at myself in the mirror and someone says, ‘Oh, you look amazing,’ I see someone who is overweight. And in my eyes and way of judging myself, not amazing, no matter what I look like.”

She added: “I was pretty skinny [during my first few seasons] and yet I was still giving wardrobe hassle in our fittings. Meaning not hassling them, more like, ‘Oh, I feel like s–t,’ or ‘Oh, my God, look at my fat roll.’ It’s so ridiculous, right? It was, like, a big deal, like, ‘Cheryl’s too fat for TV.’ And then I had a couple of my coworkers blasting my ass too. I would wake up to, like, [Los Angeles radio station] KTLA [saying], ‘Cheryl’s too fat.'”

As DWTS was moved from its longtime home on ABC to Disney’s streaming platform, Burke was enthused about the future of the show.

“It’s an exciting new chapter for the show and for the streaming world in general. Now the west coast can vote in real-time,” she told Us. “I’m excited for the show possibilities over at Disney+ and am daydreaming about how we’re going to pull off quick changes and set changes with no commercial breaks!”

In the middle of Burke’s season 30 partnership with Rigsby, the pair both tested positive for the coronavirus and were forced to isolate in their respective apartments. The twosome continued dancing and performed a virtual jazz number from their separate dwellings. However, the judges did not offer much grace considering the circumstances.

“I think that last night they were pretty harsh, to be quite honest,” Burke told Us and other reporters, wishing the judges “put everything into perspective” when coming up with their scores. “We basically only had, like, five to six hours a day to really be able to get something done. … I could have accepted the sixes if they could have at least acknowledged what was done, what was being done here, you know.”

“My hips don’t lie, and I’m starting to get tendonitis,” the dancer admitted during an appearance on the “Chicks in the Office” podcast. “For a woman, as far as ballroom dancing competitively goes, normally in their 30s [they retire]. I’m 36, so it’s time to hang up those shoes. … I also don’t want to be like that oldie that’s like, ‘Oh, here comes Cheryl doing the same choreography, just going slow but in her head, she thinks she’s going that fast.’”

While Burke thinks former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger was one of the best competitors to ever appear on the competition, she called Master P “hands down” the worst.

“He did absolutely nothing but stand there and only wear his team Miller shoes that he was just coming out with early,” she exclusively recalled to Us. "He was trying to sell shoes. Hopefully, he did."

“I can’t tell you who my partner is, obviously, but he is definitely somebody who I prefer,” Burke told Us of her season 28 partner, who was later revealed to be retired football player Ray Lewis. “I guess you could say from his job, from his occupation … he understands and he gets it. So I always prefer these types of people, let’s put it that way.”

While DWTS viewers have long been critical of the show’s voting results, Burke fervently shut down the claims.

“Being a part of the show now for 20 seasons, I can tell you that the show is not rigged despite what people might think. The votes are 50/50 from the judges and the fans,” she wrote in an exclusive essay for Us, shortly after Jordan Fisher and Lindsay Arnold’s season 25 victory. “That’s how this process works; the fans want to feel involved with their actual journey. If it were just up to the judges, I don’t know if so many people would tune in every week. You can never assume anyone is safe even if they get a perfect score. That’s why having a strong fan base is so important.”

She added: “Dancing With the Stars has been an evolution of so many different styles and I feel like in order to keep your game up, you also have to be able to work on yourself.”

After working together on DWTS season 4, Burke revealed on the “Allegedly” podcast that she was not a fan of collaborating with Ziering and wanted to “slit my wrists” throughout the experience.

“I’ve always lived by the rule that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Recently and regrettably, I broke that rule,” she tweeted several days later, apologizing for her candid remarks. “In the heat of an interview conversation, I used a phrase that seemingly makes light of suicide and I deeply regret it. I have many friends and family members that struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide. To have said something that seemingly makes a mockery of what they’ve gone through and what they live with is something that I apologize for.”