Las Vegas Weekly

March 22, 2010 · 2:56 PM

Dancing With the Stars Season 10 premieres tonight

By Robin Leach

Dancing With the Stars Season 10 competitors Buzz Aldrin and Ashly Costa.

Photo: Craig Sjodin/ABC TV

Legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin was one of the very first men to walk on the moon. Now the question is whether the 80-year-old hero can skate around Vancouver Winter Olympics figure skating champion Evan Lysacek to win the 10th season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars that gets underway tonight.

Or will pop culture icon Pamela Anderson’s assets win over fans and the final battle be against former Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger, who is teamed with Las Vegas professional dancer Derek Hough. Two other Las Vegas dancers also are contenders: Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who choreographed Le Reve segments at Wynn, is partnered with ESPN host Erin Andrews, and Chelsie Hightower, returning for her third season, is with The Bachelor Season 13 star Jake Pavelka.

All eyes will be on bestselling author and scientist Buzz, who made history July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and he landed Apollo 11 on the lunar surface and became the first two people to set foot on the moon. The world’s largest TV audience in history, an estimated 600 million, watched the event. ABC would be over the moon if one-tenth of that number tuned in tonight! Buzz was decorated with the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon his return from the space mission.

I’ve known Buzz for 20 years, and we’ve taken part in many celebrity charity events together. We’ve raced Jet-skis under the sun and gone bobsledding and dog-sled racing in the snow -- and he never stops competing. You would never know he is 80! He is a tough competitor at everything, and his dedication, discipline and determination to win and succeed, along with his amazing stamina and physical well being, could just take him to the prized disco ball with wife Lois cheering him on tonight in the front row.

In this first week of shows tonight and tomorrow, there will be no eliminations from the cha-cha and Viennese waltz, and next week, all 11 couples dance another two routines for the combined audience and judges’ votes before the first couple gets axed March 30. If you are an avid DWTS fan, make note on your schedule that the final performances are May 24, and the new winner will be crowned the following night.

Buzz has already started that the reputations of actress Shannen Doherty and reality TV star Kate Gosselin will cause them to be the first to be voted off and that even with Buzz as the possible long shot, it will come down to Evan and Nicole for the finals. Keep your eyes on Pamela, though. Her partner Damian Whitewood said: “She is committed to winning. Her figure should actually help her because her weight automatically pushes her forward over her toes, so this is a case of when her boobs will help her dancing!”

Photo: ABC TV

Derek Hough and Brooke Burke.

Season 10’s 11 celebrity contestants and their professional dance partners are Buzz with Ashly Costa (formerly DelGrosso); Pamela with Damian, making his DWTS debut; Erin with Maksim, returning for his eighth season; Shannen with two-time champion Mark Ballas in his sixth season; Kate with Tony Dovolani, returning for his ninth season; Evan with Anna Trebunskaya, returning for her fifth season; comedienne Niecy Nash with Louis Van Amstel in his sixth season;

Cincinnati Bengals star Chad Ochocinco with two-time champion Cheryl Burke in her ninth season; Jake with Chelsie returning for her third season; Nicole with Derek in his sixth season; and All My Children star Aiden Turner with Edyta Sliwinska, who has competed in all 10 seasons (and, sadly, never won)!

The couples have been working out the past three weeks, and all of them rehearsed together this past weekend for the first time along with new co-host Brooke Burke, who won Season 7 with Derek and replaces Samantha Harris. Brooke, a regular Las Vegas visitor, sent out tweets all day yesterday and this morning. One said, “I’m mentally exhausted after run-throughs for the show, but not nearly as nervous as I was when I was dancing. What a great cast.”

Photo: Craig Sjodin/ABC TV

Dancing With the Stars Season 10 competitors Evan Lysacek and Anna Trebunskaya.

Photo: Craig Sjodin/ABC TV

Dancing With the Stars Season 10 competitors Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough.

Host Tom Bergeron also said over the weekend: “This is an eclectic blend -- I like it. We’ve been trying for several seasons to get Pamela, so she’s finally onboard. I met her before when we did Hollywood Squares together. It’s cool to have an astronaut with us. It’s nice it’s been cut back from 16 contestants to 11 -- last season was just too crowded with too many. We are going to have a lot of fun with this cast -- even with Kate, who is the most controversial of all the stars booked so far over the 10 seasons!”

Vegas DeLuxe will post a spoiler-alert story tonight shortly after the West Coast live satellite feed has been seen on the East Coast, and we will have all the first-night dance-floor action photos tomorrow, plus any late-breaking news as the show is broadcast. We also will have Wynn sports book director Johnny Avello’s odds as each dance week ticks by.

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.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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