Dancing With the Stars has featured some incredible partners over the years, but not all teams were perfectly matched.
Kim Kardashian competed on season 7 of DWTS in 2008 alongside her pro partner, Mark Ballas. While Kardashian has succeeded in many arenas, she ended her DWTS run in 11th place.
A decade later, actor Milo Manheim recalled a conversation he had with Kardashian about her DWTS stint. “She doesn’t like dancing as much as I do, and I was like, ‘I’m about to do Dancing With the Stars, tell me, how was your experience?’ And she was like, ‘Milo, it’s the worst! Like, you get injured, you feel like an idiot,’” he told Entertainment Tonight in 2018. “And I was like, ‘OK …’ So that was kinda my advice from her.”
Cheryl Burke, for her part, named Ian Ziering as her“least favorite partner.” Burke claimed on the “Allegedly” podcast in 2016 that the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum “made [her] want to slit [her] wrists,” and she frequently cried to the show executives.
Burke later said that she was “out of line” for seemingly making light of self-harm. “There’s no excuse. No matter if it was a joke or not, I know it hurt him and I know it hurt his family,” she said on her “Pretty Messed Up” podcast in 2021.
Scroll down to see some of the worst Dancing With the Stars pairings over the years:
Jenna Johnson and Corey Feldman
Weeks before the season 34 premiere in September 2025, Johnson revealed via social media that she hadn’t seen Feldman since the DWTS cast was announced on Good Morning America. “I am eagerly awaiting him getting back so we can get back into the studio to dance and then to do all the content things,” she said in an Instagram Story.
The pair eventually found time together in the rehearsal studio, but when it was time for the first elimination of the season, they were sent packing. (Baron Davis and Britt Stewart were also voted off during week two in a double elimination.)
Shortly before their DWTS journey ended, Johnson’s brother-in-law and former pro Maks Chmerkovskiy hinted Johnson’s season was off to a rocky start.
“Obviously, Jenna has a bit of an uphill climb with Corey, which is easy for everybody to say from [the outside], but I know that she’s having a much more difficult time with this entire thing and to the point that it is really difficult for her,” Chmerkovskiy told the Daily Mail in September 2025.
Jesse Metcalfe and Sharna Burgess
Burgess claimed in September 2023 that her season 29 partnership was “really difficult.”
“I wasn’t able to be in the room alone with him after the first couple of weeks because of things that happened,” she alleged on her “Oldish” podcast, without mentioning the actor by name. “That was rocky and we were eliminated very quickly.”
A rep for Metcalfe then slammed the allegations. “If she is referring to a time where our client Jesse Metcalfe worked with Ms. Burgess four years ago, the only recollection was that they didn’t get along,” the spokesperson told TVLine. “Vague insinuations are not only reckless but also irrelevant.”
Hannah Brown and Alan Bersten
In 2021, the former Bachelorette opened up about the tough time she had with Bersten during season 28.
“Alan kept saying, ‘You have to trust me if we’re going to do this.’ But trust was the last thing I was prepared to give a man I’d just met,” she wrote in her book, God Bless This Mess. “As a dance partner, standing strong, I came to trust Alan more and more every week. I think that showed in our performances. Our chemistry on the stage led to the press speculating that we had something more going on between us, but we didn’t. Off the dance floor, we were not compatible people.”
She continued, “It’s intense work between partners who’ve only just met. But Alan and I had the most volatile relationship of the season, by far. It was either we acted like best friends and true partners, or we couldn’t stand each other. He’d push me too far in rehearsals, and I’d say, ‘Get out of my face. I’m not doing this,’ and he’d say, ‘You’re lazy! You’re not trying!'”
Sean Spicer and Lindsay Arnold
While competing on the show’s 28th season, the former White House press secretary drew criticism from viewers and the judges for his inability to dance. Despite this, the controversial contestant still ended the season in 6th place.
Spicer even praised Arnold for whipping him into shape. “If you saw where I started, and what this woman has done to get me to where I am today, it’s nothing short of a miracle,” he told Entertainment Tonight in 2019. “This whole thing was about getting out of my comfort zone.”
Kim Kardashian and Mark Ballas
Oh, the possible Kimojis! The Selfish author could not keep a beat during season 7 in 2008. She’d later joke about her awful dancing skills during an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. In 2015, Ballas opened up about the partnership in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “[She] wasn’t the best dancing partner. I love her, she’s awesome, we became good friends,” he said. “Dancing was not her thing, but she’s a great girl.”
Kate Gosselin and Tony Dovolani
Goodbye, Gosselin! The reality star’s whining got so out of hand during season 10 in 2010 that Dovolani threatened to quit. “You’re not taking into consideration how I learn!” she said during a rehearsal in one episode. He took off his mic pack and replied: “I’m done, I’m done today. I quit!”
