DANCING WITH THE STARS Pros Pay Tribute To Late Judge Len Goodman
By Movieguide® Contributor
Former DANCING WITH THE STARS pros recently returned to the dance floor to pay tribute to late head judge Len Goodman.
Maks Chmerkovskiy, Kym Johnson-Herjavec, Tony Dovolani, Karina Smirnoff, Anna Trebunskaya, Edyta Śliwińska, Louis van Amstel and Mark Ballas joined the show’s current pros for a special dance tribute.
It began with a video featuring interviews from the show’s stars.
“Getting criticized by Len was never easy, but getting that 10 made it all worth it,” Chmerkovskiy shared, while Derek Hough said he was “really thankful” for the time he got to have with Goodman.
The dancers then performed a routine to Henry Mancini’s “Moon River.”
“Len, we miss you so much, but we know you were here with us in the #DWTS ballroom tonight,” a post from the DWTS Instagram account reads.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Dovolani shared his own memories of Goodman, calling him “the elder statesman that had the balance of the show in his hand.”
“He never let the show go too far left or too far right. He kept it in the middle, and whenever things went awry a little bit, he brought it back to what it’s about. And that’s what I love about Len, is that he had that aura about him, that when you saw him, you knew you were in something special,” the dance pro said.
Movieguide® previously reported on other ways DANCING WITH THE STARS plans to honor Goodman:
For the first time in nearly 32 seasons, DANCING WITH THE STARS airs without its long-time judge, Len Goodman.
DTWS producers and hosts, Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough, chose to honor him in Tuesday’s premier…
DTWS Executive Producer Conrad Green told USA Today that the Mirrorball Trophy will now be called the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
Green said, “We wanted to make Len a permanent part of this show, to always remind people the importance he’s had to DANCING WITH THE STARS and how much he meant to all of us.”
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