Las Vegas Weekly

May 18, 2009 · 7:36 AM

Las Vegas contingent reunites for DWTS as stage is set for final showdown

By Robin Leach

Chuck Wicks and Julianne Hough in red -- a lot of red.

Photo: ABC TV

It’s the final two nights of ABC’s top-rated Dancing With the Stars, and unfortunately all the dancers with a Las Vegas connection have been eliminated in this Season 8. It’s all come down to the final three duos: Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani, Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas and Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke.

Melissa, who found overnight TV stardom after being rejected on The Bachelor’s 13th season, had one perfect score of 30 during this season, with the samba, and her average overall score is 26.5. Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Shawn also racked up one perfect 30, with her Argentine tango, and her average is 26.4. Hot Sex and the City hunk Gilles scored perfect 30s three times, for the tango, waltz and salsa, giving him a leading average of 27.8.

Photo: ABC TV

Cheryl Burke and Gilles Marini.

Tonight’s show is only one hour, with all the ousted teams reuniting to watch the finalists. Tomorrow, it’s a three-hour marathon before the winner receives the mirrored disco ball trophy. All our local favorites -- Holly Madison with Dmitry Chaplin, Julianne Hough with country singer boyfriend Chuck Wicks, cowboy king Ty Murray with Chelsie Hightower and Jackass star Steve-O and partner Lacey Schwimmer -- rehearsed for a minimum of two hours each day over the weekend. They will perform one dance routine tomorrow as producers heighten the tension before the announcement of the winner.

Vegas DeLuxe will have coverage tonight right after the Hollywood broadcast back to the East Coast and again tomorrow night right after the announcement of the winner. From week 1, I predicted Gilles would take the trophy, and before last week’s elimination of Ty and Chelsie, I predicted Shawn would place runner-up with Melissa in third, so we’ll see if I’m right!

Photo: ABC TV

Ty Murray and Chelsie Hightower.

Holly has promised to call me after the final broadcast before hopping on a flight to Las Vegas from Burbank to add her commentary to our spoiler alert story. Tomorrow morning, we’ll have tonight’s photos, and Wednesday morning, we’ll have the final Season 8 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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