Now that professional "Dancing With the Stars" dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy has finally won a season, will he continue to dance on the show? And what about those romance rumors between him and partner Meryl Davis?

After Chmerkovskiy and Davis took home mirror ball trophies on Tuesday night's live finale, Chmerkovskiy revealed to Entertainment Tonight that he is considering ending his run on "Dancing With the Stars."

"I don't think so," he said when asked if he would return. "This is exhausting. It has nothing to do with money. The first thing that I did after hugging [Davis] ... was come up to Derek [Hough], and I was like, 'Dude, I don't know how you do it.' He did it [win] five times. I have no idea."

On Thursday, Chmerkovskiy and Davis appeared on "The Wendy Williams Show." The host asked the pro if he would be interested in accepting a job as a "Dancing With the Stars" judge, considering that Len Goodman is leaving. Chmerkovskiy responded with "yeah," adding that he'd be a "soft" judge.

"I'm not Simon [Cowell]," Chmerkovskiy said. "I'm not a nice judge. I'm a good judge. I judge the way it's supposed to be. I know this business. I've been in it. I grew up in it. ... Spending 30 years in an industry ... I think I've done a little bit in it. I know what I'm talking about, unlike some of the guest judges that we had this season."

Davis told Williams that she is not dating Chmerkovskiy but would not reveal whether or not she has a boyfriend.

"We like to keep the personal lives personal," Davis said.

Chmerkovskiy was less negative about the rumored romance in an interview with TV Guide this week, however.

"Our relationship is very real," he said. "She's incredible. It's going to go beyond 'Dancing with the Stars' for sure. ... As far as what everybody is asking romantically, these things will never be answered by me. You're going to see things in tabloids and pictures, and you have people gossiping and making up their own stories, but I will never speak about my personal life."

The dancer did admit that the show took advantage of their chemistry.

"I think the show never had a couple like Meryl and me. ... We had these stories on the floor that gave a completely new depth to our show," he said. "Nobody, I think, came close to Meryl and me, just by sheer passion. That passion, that togetherness and that look in each other's eyes -- yes, some of it was necessary for the dances to be what they needed to be from a performance standpoint. Most of it was coming from a very real spot. We connected right away, and it was extremely creative."

---

Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

Related