As ABC's Dancing With The Stars prepares for season 17's semifinals, dance pro Karina Smirnoff opened up about the standard she and partner Corbin Bleu are held to.

In an interview with TV Guide, Smirnoff explained the higher standard judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli hold the couple, who has been front-runners since the premiere.

"I think when Carrie Ann mentioned something in the waltz that he wasn't on his center...I went back and watched that over and over again, and I was like, gosh darnit. That's what cost us a 10? They leave no room for error for us," she said.

The pro and her partner will soon perform for an extra judge possibly leaving less room for error during the upcoming semifinals since her ex-fiance, Maksim Chmerkovskiy will be a guest judge.

Smirnoff is excited about dancing for her ex and said: "Maks is known not to be friends with a filter...so I'm kind of looking forward to that."

Even without Chmerkovskiy, however, tensions have been high in the ballroom with several surprise eliminations in the last few weeks that have seen other strong couples go home while fan favorites with lower scores stay put.

"The last four eliminations were relatively shocking to me. They were the strongest dancers [who] went out, so that's not the best sign for us, because we do tend to be closer to the top of the leader board," she said. "So, we are nervous about Monday, but at the end of the day this is something that we can't control. And our main goal is to make sure that we come up with routines that are exciting and entertaining, and hopefully the audience will love it and vote us into the final."

Smirnoff previously took to her blog for People Magazine to talk about the season and the shocking eliminations of fellow competitors Christina Milian and Mark Ballas, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Sasha Sasha Farver, Brant Daugherty and Peta Murgatroyd, and Elizabeth Berkley-Lauren and Val Chmerkovskiy.

"[It's] been so unpredictable. It's a very tough season," she wrote on Nov. 4.

She followed up that thought on Nov. 11 by writing, "The whole season is bittersweet because even if we go all the way to the end, we only have less than three weeks to go."

Dancing with the Stars airs Monday, Nov. 18 with its semifinals at 8 p.m. on ABC. The finals will air on Monday Nov. 25.

Tags: Dancing with the Stars