Maksim Chmerkovskiy: Kym's In, Karina's Out

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Maksim Chmerkovskiy and his then fiancé Karina Smirnoff made their Broadway debut last summer in Burn the Floor.

But Chmerkovskiy says producers have only asked him to return, which he'll do right after Thanksgiving.

The hunky hoofer says there's no way he would have gone back if Smirnoff was part of the deal. The two called off their engagement just days before they danced together on the Emmys in September.

"I wouldn't do it if she was asked back," Chmerkovskiy told us last night at the Sony Cierge event at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Instead, another one of DWTS' pros will be joining him...

Kym Johnson will make her Broadway debut opposite Chmerkovskiy for the run, which is expected to last through early January.

"Kym's been part of the cast before and she knows everybody in it," Chmerkovskiy said, adding, "The fun part is I got a call form the producers after we finished our last run, saying, 'If you promise to come back, we'll extend it.' And I kind of like thought about it for a second and I'm like, 'You're asking me if I come back, the entire show will stay on Broadway?' That's the achievement of a lifetime."

Chmerkovskiy wasn't as thrilled to see Mark Dacascos voted off of DWTS this week, after he and his still flu-stricken partner Lacey Schwimmer battled it out in a dance-off with Smirnoff and Aaron Carter.

"It's a case of the audience dropping the ball," Chmerkovskiy said. "Mark has fans that should have backed him up. I feel for the guy. He had three partners in three days…But Mark still pulled it off. He still got it together."

This isn't the only Broadway news out of DWTS this week. Cheryl Burke is reportedly in talks to star as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago this winter.

—Reporting by Dahvi Shira

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