Las Vegas Weekly

March 24, 2009 · 10:22 AM

Photo Gallery: Julianne, Holly, Denise and Steve-O await DWTS results

By Robin Leach

Chuck Wicks and Julianne Hough.

Photo: ABC TV

It could be titled The War of the Walking Wounded! It appears as if wounded warriors Steve-O and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will face off in a dance-off on tonight’s Dancing With the Stars results episode. Both injured contestants of the series of the sad and sickly are at the bottom of the board with just 10 points for The Woz and 15 points for the Jackass stuntman. The Woz’s score of 10 points is the lowest this season so far, and might only have been exceeded by a score of 8 back in Season 2!

As promised, here are the overnight photos from the foxtrot and samba sessions last night, plus Holly Madison’s self-designed outfit that had the judges eyeballs a-popping! Click HERE for our report last night.

New rules call for the dance-off for each week’s two lowest scorers; however, the three judges’ votes aren’t the final decider. So we’ll be on pins and needles tonight as the viewer votes are tallied to see if folks at home agree or select another couple to get the axe. Maybe it’s reality TV actress Denise Richards and our Le Reve choreographer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who are in the third bottom slot at 16 points -- or maybe a complete surprise! Julianne Hough and country singer boyfriend Chuck Wicks look safe with 23 points, while Holly and partner Dmitry Chaplin received 17 points.

Last night, judges Len Goodman, Carrie Anne Inaba and Bruno Tonioli were unsympathetic toward the two injured men. Our Las Vegas regular Steve-O was still in pain from a sprained back, pinched nerve and severe bruising in a fall onto his mic pack a week earlier, while The Woz, the self-described geek, lost his hard drive and wound up on crutches from a torn hamstring.

Vegas DeLuxe will have the spoiler-alert story this evening after the East Coast satellite feed following President Obama’s press conference, providing that the grilling over the economic mess doesn’t run over!

Meantime, with my mind on money stimulus, I thought I’d see how the stars are making out on DWTS, which is ABC’s top-rated show. According to insiders, each star dancer is reportedly paid $200,000 whether they go all the way to the finals or are booted off quickly, as happened last week to Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go’s, the first contestant to be eliminated this Season 8. At the finals, though, the winner reportedly receives a $100,000 bonus, the runner-up $50,000 and the third-place star $25,000.

It sounds like a lot of money, but put it in terms of weeks, and it’s not as rich and famous as you think. There are five preparatory weeks of six-hour-a-day classes and then the 10 weeks of live shows that call for seven-day-a-week rehearsals, practices and workouts. So it’s a sacrifice of a possible 15 weeks -- just shy of four months -- for those at the top of the leader board, with a seven-day-a-week schedule lived all in front of the cameras. It almost pays to get axed Week 1, except for the potential humiliation! However, top contestants can parlay it all into bigger bucks with future stardom, nightclub hosting, TV commercials and personal appearances. Season 1 winner Kelly Monaco is co-starring in the new Planet Hollywood production Peep Show with Season 5 runner-up Mel B, while Season 7’s third-place finisher Lance Bass turned up here to switch on the Eiffel Tower lights at the Paris.

On tonight’s show, crusty Cloris Leachman returns from last season to teach the contestants next week’s challenging lindy hop and the Argentine tango, with Darryl Hall & John Oates and sensational British singer-songwriter Adele as the musical guests to accompany the dance routines of pros Dmitry, Karina Smirnoff and her fiance Maksim, Edyta Sliwinska, Alec Mazo and Tony Dovolani.

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.

Share This