Nearly a decade after appearing as a contestant on Dancing With the Stars, Jana Kramer reveals why she almost quit the show.
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The singer appeared on the competition TV show Season 23 with her pro dance partner, Gleb Savchenko. Although the duo finished in fourth place, Kramer stated that tension occurred between her and Savchenko over his “rude” behavior.
“Emotionally, that show wrecked me,” she told Bachelorette star Hannah Brown during the latest episode of her Whine Down podcast. “I struggled with the Russian.”
Kramer explained that she had struggled with Savchenko’s approach to teaching her how to dance. She even called him out for the way he treated her during practices.
“Yeah, I was like, ‘Do not speak to me that way, period,” she recalled. “They didn’t show this on the show, but I was like, ‘I’m done. I quit. Yeah, I know that you can keep filming me. Don’t care he’s being rude, and I’m not having it.'”
Kramer then pointed out, “At that point, you can push me so far, [then] I’m like, ‘We’re done here.'”
Although she wasn’t thrilled with how he treated her, Kramer understood why Savchenko was so tense. “He wanted to win too, and we were so close.”
Savchenko and Kramer Previously Recalled a Fight They Had on ‘Dancing With the Stars’
While appearing on Kramer’s podcast in 2021, Savchenko recalled the fight they had during their season on Dancing With the Stars.
“I sit down, and she gives me this attitude. She snapped,” he said. “She said something really annoying, and I was like, ‘You’re a f—king bitch!’ Everybody kind of went like, ‘Oh s–t!'”
Kramer walked out of the rehearsal as a result of the fight.
“She stormed out of the room. She threw the mic,” Savchenko continued. “I ran in the street. The cameras followed. … They showed a little bit of it, but they never actually showed the whole thing.”
Although they had their ups and downs, Savchenko did give Kramer some credit. During a 2024 interview with Us Weekly, Savchenko said his favorite Dancing With the Stars routine was one he did with Kramer.
“My favorite dance that I’ve done on Dancing With the Stars has got to be the shower dance with Jana Kramer, which was absolutely incredible,” he said. “[It was the] Argentine Tango and actually, the secret is that it worked perfectly on the day, on a live show.”
He further shared, “Before, we were slipping. We were falling. It was crazy. The water would not come on and it was too cold. But on the day, it was perfect. We got a perfect score.”