Las Vegas Weekly

May 12, 2010 · 10:23 AM

Photos: Las Vegas represented in DWTS semis; Niecy Nash exits

By Robin Leach

Dancing With the Stars' elimination episode for Week 8 on May 11, 2010.

Photo: Adam Larkey/ABC TV

With the departure of Reno 911 star Niecy Nash on last night’s Dancing With the Stars, it means that only four celebrity couples remain for next week’s semifinals. Las Vegas is well represented with two of the professional dancers: Former Las Vegas resident Derek Hough is safely atop the leaderboard with Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, and our Le Reve choreographer Maksim Chmerkovskiy with ESPN reporter Erin Andrews are coming on strong to wrestle with Olympic golden boy Evan Lysacek and Anna Trebunskaya for one of the final two spots.

Barring last-minute changes, a TV viewer-voting revolt, upsets or unexpected injuries, it looks certain that Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco and partner Cheryl Burke will be kicked off ABC’s ratings juggernaut next week. That leaves Nicole and Derek, Evan and Anna and Erin and Maks as the three finalists.

Last night, near-perfect vote-grabbers Derek and Nicole danced as the encore their Monday night 1950s-style paso doble, which helped win them 59 points out of 60! Other entertainment before the chopping clock descended last night included The Gypsy Kings in a showcase dance from Toy Story 3 and the first round of a college dance championship between Purdue University and UC San Diego.

Niecy, Chad and Erin were in the bottom three, then just Niecy and Chad -- and finally Chad stayed and Niecy went home. Classic textbook television as we predicted yesterday here! Maks was the first to hug Niecy, and then the stars circled Niecy and her partner Louis Van Amstel for one last dance.

Said Niecy: “I fulfilled a childhood dream of becoming a dancer. We’ll do our final dance on the show in two weeks’ time, and then they’ll say they made a mistake -- and we should have stayed. My plan was to win, but I fell a little short.” Louis added: “We made it to the Top Five, and that’s not bad.” Niecy added: “I’m happy I got him for a partner. We were perfectly matched. His mayhem and my foolishness were perfect complements.”

Maks chimed in: “Everyone is sad to see her go. Such is the show with only four couples left. Now we have to get through next week -- and again we have two dances each. I have some ideas.”

Our thanks to Adam Larkey at ABC for these great new photos from last night. We’re back Monday with an advance peek at the semis and the down-to-the-wire dances.

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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