Why Is Maksim Leaving Dancing With The Stars?

Maksim and Hope looking friendly

It's been reported that Maksim Chmerkovskiy is leaving Dancing With The Stars!

I love Maksim!  Why is he leaving?  The media (if you can believe them) says he's leaving to pursue movie and TV work.

One episode of Dancing With The Stars sticks out in my mind.

Season 13 (2011) of Dancing With The Stars, Maksim was paired with Hope Solo.  Hope is a soccer goalie.

She was stiff as a board.  Maksim did everything possible to try and loosen her up.  It worked for a bit during rehearsals, but she always went back to her old ways.   Stiff.

Dancing With The Stars judge Len Goodman and Maksim got into it.  See the banter below:

Maksim was very frustrated, and he lashed out.  I secretly agreed with him though when he said he was tired of inconsistent judging.  Yup.  The Dancing With The Stars judges play favorites.  It doesn't really matter if one team is better than the other.

That's pretty much why I stopped watching DWTS.

Hope Solo has since written a book called A Memoir of Hope which she states that Maksim treated her roughly, even slapping her during a rehearsal.  I'm sorry I have my doubts.  She was so whiny during her stint on DWTS, obviously looking for sympathy from everyone.

Although I've pretty much stopped watching Dancing With The Stars, I'm sorry Maksim is leaving.  But, the DWTS judges can now have their favoritism's without anyone calling them out on it.