Val Chmerkovskiy doesn’t care what you think of his and Tamar Braxton’s Week 9 routine. During Monday night’s installment of “Dancing With the Stars,” Val snapped at the judges after they critiqued the dress rehearsal footage of his and Tamar’s contemporary routine.

“It’s frustrating,” Val said during the judges’ analysis, telling the show’s host, Tom Bergeron, that “it doesn’t matter” what the judges had to say. The reason Val was irritated during Carrie Anna Inaba, Julianne Hough and Bruno Tonioli’s criticism was because while the judge’s scored the routine, his partner was sick in a hospital, suffering from pneumonia and exhaustion.

"I don't really care about things that aren't important at the moment and at the moment for me the priority was Tamar's health and the situation," he told E! News after the live show. "I'm not trying to hear critique on a dance that was done with her half conscious and caused her to be in the emergency room at the moment. For me that's not what is important.”

However, the determined singer mustered up what little strength she had left to race back to the ballroom and perform her team number, alongside Nick Carter and Sharna Burgess. The group earned 27 out of 30 for their Beatles’ inspired rumba.

Tom noted that if Tamar had missed the group dance then she and Val would have been forced with withdraw from the competition like Kim Zolciak-Biermann and Tony Dovolani. However, because Tamar made it back in time for the group number, it was Alexa PenaVega and Mark Ballas who were given the ballroom boot.

“I'm just happy that she was alright and she was able to come back and finish out the show. She's a trooper,” Val told E! News. And he wasn’t the only one impressed with Tamar’s gall! Tom, who stated his admiration for Val and his protection over his partners, called Tamar out for her shocking return.

"First of all … what the hell are you thinking?” Tom said to the run down contestant after she completed the whimsical team-dance. “I’m amazed you’re here.”

After the show, Val gushed about Tamar’s dedication and passion. "It's clear what drives people, right? And for her what drives her to be on the show isn't the check, she got that, isn't anything but her camaraderie with me and the relationship she built with me and to see her reciprocate everything I've done for her and gather herself and risk a lot of things, including health, to be here, that speaks volumes to the type of person she is," he said.

“Dancing With the Stars” airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.

RELATED STORIES