Despite slaying the competition so far, it looks like there might be some more trouble in paradise between former Bachelor Joey Graziadei and his professional dance partner, Jenna Johnson-Chmerkovskiy — the wife of fellow Dancing With the Stars pro, Val Chmerkovskiy — than Dancing With the Stars fans realize.
The latter recently admitted on an episode of the Almost Famous podcast — hosted by Bachelor Nation fan favorites Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti — that she was “a little sad” when she found out that Joey was her celebrity dance partner for season 33 of Dancing With the Stars, as she was hoping to be paired with someone else instead.
Jenna wanted to be paired with Danny Amendola
According to Jenna, she was promised a football player this time around — confident that former New England Patriots player Danny Amendola would be her celebrity dance partner — but as we know, this dream did not come to fruition once the official couples were announced.
“I was a little sad because I’ve been promised — not promised — but I’ve never had a football player. Through my time on the show I’ve never had a football player,” Jenna explained. “I kind of heard Danny was going to be involved, and I was like, ‘This is my year. I’m gonna get the NFL guy,” but to no avail.
As far as her past partnerships go, after serving on the troupe from seasons 18 to 22, Jenna made her debut as a Dancing With the Stars pro in season 23 with Wizards of Waverly Place star Jake T. Austin, and they were the first couple eliminated. Since then, she has been partnered with stars like Joe Amabile, Karamo Brown, Nev Schulman, and Tyson Beckford, even bringing home the coveted Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy alongside Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon in season 26. To top it all off, Jenna even made history as one-half of the show’s first same-sex couple, partnered with Dance Moms star JoJo Siwa in season 30 — is there anything she can’t do?
Jenna is happy to be paired with Joey Graziadei nonetheless
While a football player is yet to be added to her Dancing With the Stars resume, Jenna is content in her couple with Joey, and we do not blame her whatsoever. After all, their scores have been impressive (to say the least), earning a 21 out of 30 for their week 1 Cha-Cha to “Dancin’ in the Country” by Tyler Hubbard, a 22 out of 30 for their week 2 Rumba to “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, a 34 out of 40 for their week 3 Jive to “Shout” by The Isley Brothers, and a 36 out of 40 for their week 4 Tango to “Rock You Like a Hurricane” by Scorpions.
Topping the leaderboard yesterday (Oct. 8), we cannot wait to see where things go from here!
Not only is he an amazing dancer, but Jenna spoke out about Joey’s stellar personality on the Almost Famous podcast as well, deeming him to be “one of the most genuine humans I’ve ever met.” She continued, “I think we kind of just connected really easily and quickly and we have so much fun. Obviously there’s stressful moments — I’m not always the kindest — but it’s just such a pleasure to work with him.”
Stuck with Joey until further notice, will Jenna and the Bachelor Nation heartthrob manage to keep climbing the leaderboard, taking home the coveted Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy in the end? To find out for yourself, catch brand-new episodes of Dancing With the Stars each and every Tuesday via either ABC or Disney Plus.