Back to daytime for the diva: Her paso doble was a hit with the judges this week, but it wasn’t enough to keep Susan Lucci dancing with the other stars. The leading lady of daytime TV never found her footing or that dose of Erica Kane that she needed to make it to the final five.
Still the actress left the competition on a high note, both in her scores and her attitude, as she assured the audience “I have had the most incredible life experience here.”
Perfect performance: Monday night marked the first perfect dance of the season, and predictably, model-turned-TV host Brooke Burke was the star responsible for it.
Brooke and pro partner Derek Hough dominated the dance floor with a flawless slow jazz foxtrot that finally inspired the panel to pullout the coveted “10” paddles in unison. It also served to cement the frequent frontrunner as the one to watch in the finals.
Ballroom’s not a team sport: Even though each couples’ score (plus those all-important viewer votes) determine their “Dancing” fate, Monday night saw the addition of an unfair team twist that accounted for half of the dancers' weekly scores.
That wasn’t a problem for those lucky enough to be on Team Paso Doble — made up of dance-floor overachiever Brooke and competent cohorts Warren Sapp and Maurice Greene. They added 29 big ones to their tallies for the night.
But pity the performers on Team Cha-Cha. While Lance Bass put on a good show, the same can’t be said of the rest of his crew, a.k.a. Cody Linley and Susan Lucci. The group effort was only worth 20 points each.
The curse continues: It’s getting to where the stars can’t make it through a whole week without adding to this season’s extra-long injury list. Between Brooke’s fractured foot, Lance’s broken toe and Maurice’s hyperextended leg, a full half of the competition is now dancing through the pain. Heck, Cloris Leachman should consider herself lucky for making it out of the ballroom last week with both her hips intact.
Say what, Samantha?: When Lance showed off the fabric foot brace that helped him rumba around his injury, he dubbed it a “little granny-panty.” Never one to let a decent joke go by without becoming the butt of it, co-host Samantha Harris interrupted the ‘N Sync star. Samantha: Foot undies! Lance (holding the brace): This is what allowed me to spin-- Samantha (interrupting, again): We’ll call them fundies! Lance (ignoring her): These are great.