Las Vegas Weekly

May 11, 2009 · 7:26 PM

One couple has a perfect night on Dancing With the Stars

By Robin Leach

Chelsie Hightower and Ty Murray.

Photo: ABC TV

After nine exhausting eliminations, only four couples remain from the original 13 celebrity duos on Dancing With the Stars, and tonight with everything on the line, they performed two dances each as the top-rated ABC show reached the exciting semifinals. For two teams, it started out as a night of perfect scores!

All four finalists took a dance down memory lane as they recapped their favorite breakthrough routines this season. Now, though, it’s back to real time, and Gilles Marini with Cheryl Burke had to tackle the salsa and the waltz. Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas took on the Argentine tango and the jive. The biggest surprise in the show, thanks to voter viewing, are long shots Ty Murray and Chelsie Hightower, who had to dance the samba and the Viennese waltz. First up, though, it was Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani, who faced the chacha and the quickstep.

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!

In the first ballroom round of scoring, Melissa and Tony scored 28 out of 30 for the quickstep; Gilles and Cheryl grabbed a perfect 30 for their tango; Shawn and Mark stunned the judges and the studio audience with a perfect Argentine tango and also nailed 30. And that left Ty and our Vegas-born beauty Chelsie with the Viennese waltz, which netted them 25 out of 30.

Scoring then moved over to the Latin routines, and again the dance competition started with Melissa and Tony. They scored 27 out of 30 for the chacha, making their total for the night 55 out of 60.

To delay the drama and increase the suspense, TV producers introduced the 30 new bachelors who kick off the new season of The Bachelorette next Monday. Impossible to tell if any of them have Vegas connections, but be assured we will check that out later in the week!

The remaining scores are Gilles and Cheryl for the salsa, and again it’s a perfect 30 for a total of 60 out of 60; Shawn and Mark score a disappointing 26 out of 30 for the jive, adding up to a total of 56 out of 60; and again it left Ty and Chelsie, and they scored 23 out of 30 for their samba, for a total of 48 out of 60.

So the bottom two couples going into tomorrow night’s viewer voting are Ty and Chelsie yet again with the lowest scores, and, surprisingly, Melissa and Tony. Gilles and Shawn are now the front-runners on the leader board as the finals near in just one week!

Only one question remains until then: Can TV viewers save Ty and Chelsie for next week’s final showdown, which looks set between Gilles and Shawn, or has their run finally come to an end? Vegas DeLuxe will be back tomorrow night right after the verdict with the semifinal execution!

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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