Jana Kramer Almost Quit ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Over Gleb Savchenko

Jana Kramer almost cut her time short on Dancing with the Stars because of her partner.

On the latest episode of her Whine Down podcast, Jana Kramer, the One Tree Hill actress, 42, opened up about her time on the hit ABC competition series. Although she made it to the finals in Season 23 with pro Gleb Savchenko, she found it hard to work with him at first.

“I struggled with the Russian…” Jana started, struggling to find the words, leaving guest Hannah Brown to fill in her blanks, “culture and the way that they teach.”

The actress confirmed, as she recalled, “I was like, ‘Do not speak to me that way. Period.’

“They didn’t show this on the show, but I was like, ‘I’m done. I quit. You can keep filming me. Don’t care. He’s being rude, and I’m not having it,'” she added.

The two were able to make it through the rest of the season once Jana reminded herself that her partner was coming from a good place.

“I knew Gleb’s intentions wasn’t that he was trying to be mean. He wanted to win too, and we were close,” she said.

Jana’s revelations come after another one of Gleb’s former partners, Brooks Nader, came forward with regrets of her own.

Brooks and Gleb were initially believed to be on great terms throughout the competition, despite getting cut early on in Season 33. However, the model has since confessed that it was far from the case.

After a whirlwind romance that continued for months after the show, she admitted, “We are both just so f—— petty, and we would do the most f—– up, petty, toxic things to each other throughout the whole season.”

“That’s why I think we had good chemistry,” she told Olivia Attwood on her Olivia’s House podcast.

The two ultimately split in April 2025 after Brooks allegedly caught the pro dancer cheating on her. Gleb has vehemently denied the claims.