‘Dancing with the Stars’ Maksim Chmerkovskiy will not return for season 21 (or any other season)

Tonight, Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s brother Valentin has a chance to win “Dancing with the Stars” for the first time alongside his partner Rumer Willis. So is it possible that we could see Maks himself reenter the ballroom at some point in the future with a new celebrity? It’s fair to say not to count on it.

Speaking out in a new interview with Glamour, Maks (who previously won the show with Meryl Davis) made it clear that he has no intention return for season 21, or really any other season, for that matter. It does not have to do with money or the right partner or anything else; instead, he is just ready to move on and try something new with his career:

“You have to walk away when the time is right, and the time was right … Nothing was out of ordinary. Like a plant that in order to improve growth, you have to pull branches. It’s the same thing. Every now and again, everything needs to be refreshed. Me, Cheryl Burke, Karina Smirnoff, the few of us leaving, I think this might be one of the last times we see Derek Hough. Tony Dovolani is still around, but I don’t know for how long. It’s not set. It’s awesome. We’ve moved on, and the show is still where it is … I hope the show stays for another 10 years, and we’ll come celebrate it when we’re a lot older.”

We don’t really blame Maks for thinking this at all, much in the same way that we don’t blame anyone who is a longtime pro leaving the show for wanting to do something else. You make a good deal of money, then try to move on. This is a demanding job, both physically and in terms of long hours. While you do get some breaks to do other things, at a certain point it just may not be worth it.

As for the future of Derek, all we know is that he is going to consider his options after he moves further into the summer.

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