Las Vegas Weekly

April 20, 2009 · 6:52 PM

Injury plagues another Dancing With the Stars team

By Robin Leach

Chelsie Hightower and Ty Murray.

Photo: ABC TV

World champion rodeo cowboy Ty Murray can wrestle a 1,000-pound steer to a stop if necessary, but when it comes to flying mic packs, he can’t duck the hit!

Don’t read any further if you plan on watching the tape-delayed West Coast broadcast of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars and want nothing spoiled beforehand! But come back after the show to compare notes!

Ty may well be the first Dancing With the Stars contestant to shine tonight -- with a black eye. While rehearsing for a group dance for tonight’s show featuring all the remaining celebrities, his pro partner’s mic pack swung loose and clocked him in the eye. Professional dancer and Las Vegas-born Chelsie Hightower lost the pack while being swung by Ty, and it cut open his eye.

Chelsie and Las Vegas Academy graduate Julianne Hough, dancing with country singer beau Chuck Wicks, might possibly face each other tomorrow night on the results show. Also in the judges’ target range tonight were Lawrence Taylor and his partner Edyta Sliwinska.

The judges kept Gilles Marini, Shawn Johnson and Melissa Rycroft and their pro partners all in the safety zone with the following scores: Melissa with Tony Dovolani scored 29 out of 30; Shawn with Mark Ballas received 28; and Gilles and Cheryl Burked totaled 27. In a breakout performance, Chuck and Julianne amassed 27, their highest score this season.

The bottom three scores were Lawrence and Edyta with 21, Ty and Chelsie with 24 and, in a rare appearance, Lil’ Kim with Derek Hough at 26. Lawrence looks like a sure bet for the bottom two, but with the scores this close, it’s anyone’s guess!

Viewers now vote for tomorrow night’s dance-off elimination, and Vegas DeLuxe will post that result shortly after the live broadcast has been transmitted to the East Coast. Viewer votes have been especially unpredictable this Season 8, so anything could happen! First, though, in the morning are the official dance floor photos.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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