Las Vegas Weekly

March 31, 2009 · 7:26 PM

Two couples are eliminated on DWTS, including one of the Steves

By Robin Leach

The contestants of Dancing With the Stars on March 30, 2009.

Photo: ABC TV

And then there were nine! Dancing With the Stars began the night with 11 celebrities, and minutes ago, two were unceremoniously booted.

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!

From last night’s show -- click HERE for that first-filed spoiler report yesterday -- the judges lowered the boom on the three lowest point scorers: Holly Madison with Dmitry Chaplin, Steve Wozniak with Karina Smirnoff and Jackass stuntman Steve-O with Lacey Schwimmer.

The big guessing game all day today was whether the unpredictable viewers would overrule the judges or go along with their decisions.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Playboy blonde beauty and I texted each other, and she was dreading being sent into the double-elimination challenge. She didn’t even want to think about it, preferring to say how much she was looking forward to being with her The Girls Next Door buddies Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt for Hugh Hefner’s 83rd birthday celebrations at the Palms this weekend.

Photo: ABC TV

Dmitry Chaplin and Holly Madison.

The first surprise of the night was the decision not to allow the three lowest scorers to dance against one another. The sudden death announcement will come solely based on the cumulative voting from half the judges’ count from last night along with the viewers’ input. Said Holly, who also had to explain the voting mechanics for the TV audience: “I love the Argentine tango we did. I would loved to have performed it a second time without a mistake.”

The professional dancers Julianne Hough, brother Derek Hough, Chelsea Hightower and Lacey Schwimmer danced a demo of next week’s paso doble to the rock music of Kevin Rudolph. Can’t wait for you to see the latex half-skirts in which the ladies make their moves. Then another set of world champion dancers demonstrated the other dance for next week: the challenging rumba!

Slowly in between the dances and musical guest stars, host Tom Bergeron revealed the names of those who are safe and will return next week to dance: Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke, Lawrence Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska, Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas, Chuck Wicks and Julianne Hough (who will be performing and rehearsing here in Las Vegas this coming weekend during the Academy of Country Music Awards show), Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani, Lil’ Kim and Derek Hough, Ty Murray and Chelsea Hightower, and finally David Alan Grier and Kym Johnson.

Photo: ABC TV

Steve Wozniak and Karina Smirnoff.

So the viewers at home decided to vote along with the judges for the first time in Season 8 -- and in the final moments, it came down to decision time for Holly and Dmitry, Steve-O and Lacey and The Woz and Karina. No dance-off; just the facts, ma’am!

Now another surprise: Going home were Holly and Steve … Wozniak, the Apple co-founder. It meant that Steve-O will return next Monday instead of The Woz, the injured underdog who had built quite a fan following!

Check back to Vegas DeLuxe in the morning for the overnight action photos direct from the dance floor, along with short interviews from the axed couples and our story about the Vegas wedding plans that engaged couple Maksim and Karina are already making!

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.

— From Vegas Deluxe

Link Share This