Las Vegas Weekly

March 29, 2010 · 7:35 PM

DWTS: Will an obvious couple go home tomorrow night?

By Robin Leach

The season 10 premiere of Dancing With the Stars.

Photo: Adam Larkey/ABC TV

On the second week of Dancing With the Stars, the celebrity dancers re-established their positions from last week’s premiere with no upsets or shocks but an amazing surprise from Pamela Anderson. I didn’t take Tony Dovolani’s threat to quit on Kate Gosselin that seriously, but it was good reality TV and probably worked against her!

SPOILER ALERT: Please do not read any further if you want to watch the West Coast tape-delayed broadcast of Dancing With the Stars. Consider this my one and only friendly warning! But come back after the show to see if you agree with my observations!

The good dancers are getting better and showing sharper skills and fancy footwork improvements, but the troubled teams at the bottom simply have slipped down even farther. Down at the finish line and facing the first elimination are Buzz Aldrin, Kate and Chad Ochocinco, with our 80-year-old legendary astronaut in really serious trouble that even Houston control couldn’t give him assistance.

Up at the top, the battle rages among Nicole Scherzinger, Evan Lysacek and Erin Andrews, but Pamela is still right in there nipping at their heels. The former Baywatch beauty and Playboy cover girl darling pulled off a startling Marilyn Monroe impersonation doing the foxtrot to the screen goddess's most famous song “I Want to Be Loved By You.” Although the brave theatrical piece won kudos from the audience and judges alike, it didn’t move her up the leader board.

Now it’s up to the viewers. Maybe they’ll vote out Buzz to avoid further embarrassment or take pity and give him another week or two for redemption. Will they dislike Kate so much to keep Buzz around and ax her? Will Chad be chopped by viewers to save Buzz? These are the questions as we approach tomorrow night’s first elimination. My fear is that for the sake of making the survivors all work harder, Buzz will check out of this space capsule or Chad will return to running drills.

THE SCORES

As expected, Nicole and our hometown Derek Hough trounced the competition, earning two perfect 10 scores from the judges for a total of 28 dancing the jive to “SOS.” Evan and Anna Trebunskaya earned 24 from the judges’ voting for their jive to “Best Damn Thing.” Our Le Reve choreographer Maksim Chmerkovskiy and ESPN dance partner Erin danced their foxtrot to “Love Story” as if they might well be in love. It showed! The judges handed out high praise but a miserly 23 points.

Pamela “brought Marilyn Monroe back to life,” said judge Carrie Ann Inaba talking about the different characters the busty beauty can conjure. However, her foxtrot with Damian Whitewood to Marilyn’s quintessential song garnered them only 22 points but certainly kept them in the running.

Niecy Nash and Louis Van Amstel scored 21 from the judges for their foxtrot to “Perfect Man.” Shannen Doherty and Mark Ballas did the jive to “Shake Ya Tail Feather” and scored 20 from the judges. It’s a tie at 20 for The Bachelor star Jake Pavelka and his Las Vegas professional partner Chelsie Hightower for their jive to “Hip to Be Square.”

Aiden Turner and Edyta Sliwinska danced the foxtrot to “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” for 19 votes and were commended for improving from the first week. Fast on the football field but not on the dance floor. That seems to be a problem for Chad, who scored only 16 votes for his foxtrot with Cheryl Burke to “100 Years.” Kate is tangled up with pro partner Tony. Their jive to the maybe-not-so-prophetic “I’m Still Standing” garnered them 15 votes.

It’s the lowest score of the season and nearly at the ranking of worst of all time for Buzz and pro partner Ashly Costa. He can soar into space and walk on the moon, but with just 12 points for his appropriately titled “Fly Me to the Moon” foxtrot, the music didn’t save this flight.

We’ll be back right here tomorrow with this evening’s dance-floor photos and again tomorrow night with the first elimination. Will it be Kate, Buzz or Chad? Start guessing who will be the first to go!

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.

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

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