Las Vegas Weekly

October 19, 2009 · 7:21 PM

Flu may place DWTS cast in peril; local favorite has record night

By Robin Leach

Karina Smirnoff and Aaron Carter on Dancing With the Stars.

Photo: Adam Larkey/ABC TV

With a temperature of 104 degrees and two hours of an IV drip in his arm, pro dancer Derek Hough from the Las Vegas Academy was knocked out of the ABC hit show tonight, and ousted dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy was brought back to partner with supermodel Joanna Krupa.

That set up a mini-war with singer Aaron Carter, who is dancing with Karina Smirnoff, Maks’ ex-fiance before they recently ended their relationship. Aaron has told reporters that he thinks the atmosphere on the set is much better with Maks gone.

That ignited a firestorm of verbal lashing from Maks against Aaron, and it doesn’t help that Karina is the girl in the middle. Nowhere near as bad as the nickel that Michael Irvin presented to Bruno Tonioli, though. Read on!

Medics were concerned that Derek’s flu symptoms could be contagious and affect other dancers and their celebrity partners, particularly because Mark Ballas went down with the flu during rehearsals and Anna Trebunskaya had to sub for him with partner Melissa Joan Hart. We’re watching that developing story.

SPOILER ALERT: Please do not read any further if you want to get the full surprise and drama of watching the West Coast tape-delayed broadcast of ABC’s top-rated Dancing With the Stars. But come back after the show to compare notes with us!

Tonight’s dances were the Argentine Tango and the Paso Doble. Mya and Dmitry Chaplin scored all 9’s for their Tango, but right on their 27 heels, it was even more spectacular dancing from Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson for their Tango, with the season’s highest score of 29!

Congrats to our Flamingo headliner for their first near-perfect score. He’s become the miracle man of this Season 9. Donny, now past his 50th birthday, still manages to rehearse five hours a day and perform four shows a week on the Strip at the Flamingo. Talk about stamina and determination to put him atop the leader board.

Despite Joanna and Maks only teaming up for their Argentine Tango after Derek’s illness, they scored a solid 24, although if they hadn’t had one small trip, they would have scored higher.

Here are the other scores of the night:

Down on the lowliest rung, it was still Michael and Anna Demidova (Paso Doble) because of the “butt nickel” trick with 21 points; Natalie Coughlin and Alec Mazo (Paso Doble) scored 22, as did Louie Vito and Chelsie Hightower for their Argentine Tango; Mark returned strong enough to dance the Argentine Tango with Melissa, and they snagged 23 points; Aaron and Karina scored 24 with their Tango, as did Kelly Osbourne and Louis Van Amstel dancing the Paso Doble to dad Ozzy Osbourne’s classic “Crazy Train”; and Mark Dacascos with Lacey Schwimmer (Paso Doble) received 26 points.

Tomorrow night, it’s the Michael Jackson musical tribute with all 16 dance professionals, and next Tuesday’s results show will star country singing sensation Taylor Swift, who was in town over the weekend, as we reported earlier today. We’ll be back in the morning with full photo coverage of Donny’s triumph and a not-too-difficult guess as to who will be packing up their dancing shoes and heading home!

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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