Oct 14 2009
Liddell’s “Dancing” Not Tough Enough
UFC champ Chuck Liddell won’t be doing any more lifts or dancing now that he and partner Anna Trebunskaya are out of the running on Dancing With the Stars. (picture courtesy of ABC-TV/AP/Adam Larkey)
The brawn is gone from ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.
Ultimate Fighting Championship grappler and Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell , along with partner Anna Trebunskaya, performed a rather flat Two-Step Monday evening, and, fittingly, got the proverbial boot from the dancing competition the following night. After adding viewer votes to judges scores, Liddell ended up with the lowest combined total of any competitor this week.
Barely surviving elimination this week was pop star Aaron Carter, who scored just one point higher (18) than Liddell with the judges this week. Escaping this week’s bottom two was NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin and partner Anna Demidova. Thus far, Irvin’s highest score is a 20, which he achieved in week two. His three other individual-couples dances scored a less-than-stellar 13, 14 and 16. If he does not get into the groove and fast, he will go the way of Lawrence Taylor, rather than season seven’s runner-up, Warren Sapp.
Somehow, champion snowboarder Louie Vito received enough votes to evade the bottom two this week. His Two-Step made Liddell’s look majestic by comparison (though with a judges score of 16, he only scored one point less than Liddell). Vito’s partner Chelsie Hightower best grab the reigns and make a dancer out of this boy, otherwise he on’t be around for too much longer- unless, he pulls a Ty Murray and manages to coast by without ever really scoring a knockout on the dance floor.
Carter needs to deliver a knockout performance next week, following his non-sizzling Lambada with partner Karina Smirnoff this week. Smirnoff is faring a little better than the previous two season, though, when she and partners Steve Wozniak and Rocco DiSpirito were the fourth couples to leave the competition.
The competitor who faces the biggest challenge next week, though, may be Melissa Joan Hart, who tied Mya for first place with the judges this week and scored the largest week-to-week gain in the show’s history (from a 19 to a 28). Was her energetic, entertaining Charleston a fluke, or can she shine again? She best have those Sabrina the Teenage Witch powers on standby in case she begins reverting to her old self.
