Tonight, for the first time on season 8 of star Steve-O, who ended the night, as usual, in last place.
Host Tom Bergeron pointed out that the season is at its halfway point and that judge Len Goodman always says this is where Kim, Melissa, and gymnast Shawn Johnson, while the pretenders are Steve-O, country singer Chuck Wicks, former football player Lawrence Taylor, and rodeo star Ty Murray, although Steve barely bothered to pretend tonight.
The second-to-last-place finishers, Ty Murray and his partner, Chelsie Hightower, kicked things off, literally, with a jive. Viewers who never see the jive except on During the performance Ty fell behind or stumbled ahead of Chelsie several times.
Len Goodman said that although Ty was charming,
RELATED: Click here for last night's 'DWTS' scorecard
The season he showed up wearing a tuxedo and bearing a prom dress for her.
After that, they were off like
As Shawn and Mark waited for their scores, Samantha reminded Shawn that she might miss her real-life high-school prom, and Shawn replied, Goodman a 9 and Bruno another 9, for a total of 26, which would turn out to be enough to tie them with Gilles and Cheryl in third place.
Lawrence Taylor, who survived the bottom-two dance-off last week, needed to work on his charisma, so in his rehearsal segment, he got a pep talk from a season 7
After a setup like that, it didns pink legwarmers, which looked like cutoffs that were made by someone who misunderstood the concept of cutoffs and kept the bottom part of the pants.)
The judges went along with the rehearsal-segment spin. s best score so far.
Coming off a relatively bad score last week, Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani went for the chuckles in their rehearsal segment. Instructing the whereupon the two began pantomiming wipers in front of their eyes.
Perhaps because she needs to inspire male voters, Melissas bra top was much fuller than it was last week. Even so, the rumba failed to steam up. Melissa seemed to be concentrating on hitting her marks and striking poses rather than working on making the dance look fluid and sensual.
Len told her she could be a bit more earthy and less balletic, but the bra seemed to have worked its magic on Bruno: “Youre so voluptuous and so exotic, and your body can assume the most incredible shapes,” he raved, waving his arms so wildly that he struck Len in the face. (“Why do I have to put up with this?” groused Len. “What have I done?”) Carrie Ann said that Melissa made her believe in the passion but that she needed to work on her “Cuban motion.” (If the rumba is a Latin dance, why did none of the songs tonight have a Latin beat?) Despite their varied takes, the judges all gave Melissa a 9.
You might have expected similar unanimity of opinion about Lil Kim and Derek Houghs hugely entertaining jive routine. (Lets try to ignore the irrelevant rehearsal filler showing them visiting a retro burger joint and meeting people who were actually alive during the 1950s.) Danced to “Jailhouse Rock,” the number featured Derek as an escaped convict and Kim as some kind of law-enforcement official. Full of humor and razzle-dazzle, it was the first jive of the night that didnt give us an overdose of flicky kicks; in fact, there were so few that one might have begun to suspect that a certain ballroom stickler would penalize the dancers for not following the genre closely enough.
But first, Bruno lost his mind: “Warden Kim!” he shouted. “Im guilty! Arrest me! Frisk me! Take me! Im guilty of love in the first degree.” Carrie Ann got so excited she lost her diamonds, then praised Derek for his “fantastic choreography.” Len, however, said, “It was fun, you had energy. I think you got so carried away with the story of ‘Jailhouse Rock that it lacked a lot of jive that I would like to see.” After a chorus of boos, he added, “It was a tad theatrical. What was on the label wasnt in the tin.”
“Well examine Lens tin after the break,” said Tom. (Good thing Len used the British term “tin” rather than “can.”) After that break, Carrie Ann gave the pair a 10, Len an 8 and Bruno a 10 with a fist pump.
Doing her postmortem, Samantha Harris actually questioned a judges judgment, saying, “If it wasnt for that poopy head Len giving you guys that amazing 8, which is still good but…” Derek graciously said that Len was right and that his choreography had emphasized theatricality over strict ballroom rules. (Although he didnt disagree with the “poopy head” remark.)
But unknown to viewers, Lil' Kim nearly had a big wardrobe malfunction. Host Tom Bergeron provided cover while the rapper adjusted as she and Hough approached the judges table.
Lil' Kim told KABC-TV after the show: "I don't know why this happens a lot of the time, but ... the girls were tryin' to come out."
It turned out Shawn Johnson wasnt the only dancer having a problem with the romantic rumba tonight. Steve-Os partner, Lacey Schwimmer, complained to the camera that he has so far been unable to “find some sort of romantic connection” with her. “You cant have a romance with yourself,” she told him. “Oh, I can,” he replied, deadpan.
The problem, Steve said, is that theyre like brother and sister, which evidently means that he picks his nose, passes gas (mildewy gas at that) and scratches his posterior around her. His true love, it turns out, is his dog, Boogie, who bounced into the rehearsal space just in time to win over the crucial demographic of people who love dogs but dont mind bad dancing.
The pairs rumba was their first routine that Steve didnt ruin. He achieved that by not dancing at all, unless you can call walking while stretching out your arm dancing. “There was something oddly mesmerizing about watching you dance,” said Carrie Ann. (Have we seen a segment in which she says she loves dogs, or Steve-O?)
"I was totally taken in, Carrie Ann gave Steve a 7 (maybe she had been looking for her diamonds under the table during the performance), Len a 4 (good job, Poopy Head!), and Bruno a 5.
Trying to come up with a problem for Gilles Marinis pre-jive rehearsal segment, someone decided it was that he has a hard time looking like hes having fun. So he went to play his favorite sport, soccer, proving that he even can be graceful kicking a ball.
Sadly, Gilles didnt score with his jive. Set to Fall Out Boys too-fast “Dance Dance,” the routine initially seemed viable, as Gilles managed to keep kicking in double time. But it gradually lost energy, and according to Len, Gilles made a major misstep in front of the judges table. “It was a little bit frantic,” Len said, fairly. “Youve got to remember,” said Tom, “hes usually past the early-bird dinner by now.” (It was still only around 6 p.m. Pacific Time.)
Comparing Gilles to a “mad squirrel,” Bruno said that because of the speed of the music, Gilles lost his sharpness, but both Bruno and Carrie Ann praised Gilles showmanship. They gave him a 9 to Lens 8.
Given that the rumba is supposed to be so romantic, Chuck Wicks and Julianne Hough should have had an advantage because theyre dating. “This is one dance I dont want to mess up,” said Chuck, “because obviously we love each other, and I dont want them to say we have no chemistry.”
Naturally, the rehearsal footage showed them bickering, so they went off to where they reportedly had their first date, the Santa Monica Pier, and did the kind of things that people do in movie montages showing a growing romance, ending with a dance at the end of the pier.
Juliannes cleavage-baring top and thigh-high lace stockings signaled where she and Chuck were going to go with their routine. She spent much of the time writhing up against him. He made a decent effort to create some good lines, considering that he must have known no one was looking at him anyway.
The routine provoked a debate among the judges on the nature of the rumba. They all agreed that the performance was raunchy, but Bruno and Carrie Ann thought that was a good thing, and Poopy Head thought that was a bad thing. Fanning herself, Carrie Ann said,
Since most people are a little less conservative than Len, Chuck and Julianne will probably avoid the bottom-two dance-off Tuesday night. The question is whether Steve-O will remain invulnerable, leaving Ty and Lawrence competing in a cowboy-Giant matchup.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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