by David McAlpine

Last night, on Dancing With the Stars, Len Goodman smashed almost everyone’s dancing to pieces, including giving Mya a 7 when Carrie Ann and Bruno both gave her a 10. The middle pack refused to separate, clumping the middle of a the leaderboard, but Michael Irving and Tom DeLay (who said he was more injured than before) faltered more than everyone, leaving them with the two worst scores of the night.

Unfortunately for us, one of my favorite cast members is already leaving: Tom DeLay. Due to his foot injury, doctors advised him to not go any further in the competition, advice he took seriously. But with one star out this week, that should be it, right?

Wrong! Tom Bergeron says that just because Tom DeLay is going home doesn’t mean they won’t be cutting another terrible dancer, so two celebrities and their partners will be headed home. The look on Debi Mazar’s face is priceless, because she knows that she’s in serious trouble after last week’s vote.

As always, the celebrities get subject to yet another crazy montage, this time with last season’s quasi-star Steve Wozniak, ESPN Fantasy Analyst Matthew Berry and a baby analyzed the contestants and made their picks for the finalists. Matthew picked Natalie and Aaron, Steve picked Donny and Mya (hm, the four front-runners, that’s not a shocker at all), and the baby picked Melissa. Oh, Melissa, we still love you.

Queen Latifah was the performer of the night, bringing down the house (get it?) with two nice performances. The first was “Fast Car,” which featured some intense dancing between Cheryl and Maksim. I’m sure Karina wasn’t happy backstage, that’s for sure. The second, where Queen Latifah looked a little off in her overly-sequined top and high tops, was her rendition of “Ease on Down the Road,” with her own dancers as back up. The Jabbawockeez (from America’s Best Dance Crew) also came out to perform, slyly incorporating Lacey Schwimmer and Mark Ballas into the dance.

Then it’s elimination time. The four teams “in jeopardy” (which I still really don’t get) were: Michael and Anna, Debi and Maksim, Aaron and Karina and Joanna and Derek. You could hear the shock in the room that Aaron and Joanna were the next lowest, but I wasn’t that surprised because, relative to the rest of the season, they both were bad last night. It didn’t matter, because they were both declared safe, leaving Michael and Debi in the bottom two. And just like many people expected, Debi got the red light, eliminating her from the competition. The sad part about it is that she probably would have been eliminated even if Tom DeLay chose to stay.

Next week, four new dances premiere on the show: the two-step, the bolero, the Charleston and the lambada. Tune in to Dancing with the Stars Monday at 8/7c on ABC to see how the celebrities handle the new moves!

(Photo courtesy of ABC)

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