NEED TO KNOW
- Dancing with the Stars guest judge Flavor Flav tells PEOPLE he meant to give Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy a higher score
- The rapper and TV personality gave the partners a nine when he meant to give them a 10, keeping them from a perfect score
- “They wouldn’t let me change it,” Flav tells PEOPLE
Dancing with the Stars guest judge Flavor Flav insists he didn’t mean to mess up Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy’s perfect score on Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Night.
While speaking exclusively to PEOPLE on Tuesday, Nov. 4 following the latest episode of the competition — which saw the eight remaining couples of season 34 dance to classic rock hits, in honor of the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony coming up on Saturday, Nov. 8 — Flav, 66, says he meant to hold up a 10 for Earle and Chmerkovskiy, not a 9.
“I gave them a nine which was an accident. I really wanted to give them a 10, but they wouldn’t let me change it,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee tells PEOPLE.
Flav adds, “I went, ‘No. No, that was an accident. I don’t want to give them a nine. I want to give them a 10.’ But they was like, ‘Flavor, it’s already locked in. You can’t change it.’ I’m like, ‘Oh man.'”
“That’s how the game goes. You know what I’m saying?” the rapper admits.
When it came to giving out that perfect score, Flav says he was looking “for precision” and “preciseness.”
“I looked for the perfect timing. You know what I’m saying? And I looked for the perfect teamwork. Each one of these couples tonight had all that and more,” the musician tells PEOPLE.
Week 8 of the hit dancing competition saw Earle and Chmerkovskiy dance a Paso Doble to “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, since it connected to the content creator’s New Jersey roots.
Following the performance, Flav said their “timing was great” before being shut down with music as Earle and Chmerkovskiy were ushered to the skybox. All judges gave them a 10, except for Flav, who accidentally gave them a 9.
Tuesday marked the latest time the couple nearly nabbed a perfect score, as they got a total of 39/40 during week seven for their tango to the Billie Eilish song “bury a friend.”
Judges Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba all awarded Earle and Chmerkovskiy 10s for their number, while guest judge Cheryl Burke gave the two a 9, placing them at the top of the leaderboard.
The latest episode saw Danielle Fishel and Pasha Pashkov get sent home after they performed a Contemporary routine to “Dream On” by Aerosmith.
Inaba and Flav gave the pair 9s, while Hough and Tonioli gave 8s, getting them a score of 34/40 for what would be their final performance.
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Following their exit, Fishel insisted the experience “meant everything,” adding that the show has “truly been life changing, and every single moment, including this one, has been joyous.”
Meanwhile, Pashkov told his partner she’s now his “friend for life.”
New episodes of Dancing with the Stars air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on both ABC and Disney+.
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