Clyde Cut in Fourth ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Elimination
Fan Favorite Receives Standing Ovation Before His Final Dance
I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen so soon, but apparently home voters finally saw the light and decided it was time to save former NBA star Clyde Drexler from further misery and embarrassment. Before departing, Clyde thanked his partner Elena Grinenko, praised the judges (making certain to point out their occasionally cruel rather than constructive criticism), wished the rest of the contestants luck, and gave an extra big shout out to his fans, who he rightfully recognized as being 110 percent responsible for him remaining in the running for five weeks. The man nicknamed “The Glide” also reminded the judges that unlike American Idol contestants, who strive to be the best singers, the celebrities on Dancing with the Stars are simply trying to dance their best each week. In other words, give ‘em a break and quit with all the nitpicking complaints already.
The biggest surprise, to me at least, wasn’t that Clyde and Elena got deep sixed, but that Heather Mills and her partner Jonathan Roberts were the other couple in the bottom two. There are more than a few people who believe that the estranged Mrs. McCartney faked the fall at the end of her Monday-night performance in order to drum up sympathy. Whether that’s true or not, the voting results made it clear that Heather is not as loved as the other amateur dancers in the competition, so she had better be on her best behavior from here on out. We’re already down to just two female celebrities; if she goes, Laila Ali would have to represent the fairer sex all by her lonesome.
As predicted in my Week 5 recap, the judges selected Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno and his partner Julianne Hough to reprise their perfectly scored Samba from the previous night, and the infectiously bubbly couple brought the house down once again. Other notable moments included Season 2 fourth-place finisher Lisa Rinna dancing a man-happy ditty from her forthcoming Broadway debut in the Tony-winning musical Chicago; the look of sheer joy, relief, and shock on pro hoofer Edyta Sliwinska’s face when it was revealed that she and her partner John Ratzenberger were the week’s second safe couple (I knew that was going to happen because the pair’s performance Monday night was just too much fun for them to get the boot this time around, let alone wind up in the bottom two for the second week in a row); and Grammy-winning soul singer Macy Gray dedicating her music number to the victims of Monday’s Virginia Tech massacre.
Last but certainly not least, while demonstrating how to dance the Swing during the “Dance Along at Home with Jimmy Kimmel” segment, late-night yakker Jimmy Kimmel lost the affections of his parking-lot security guard Guillermo, who retreated to the bathroom for some private time with his new love, Joey Fatone, to the moving melody of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s star-crossed lovers them. Then, after revealing Clyde’s last-place finish, co-host Tom Bergeron closed the drawn-out hour with the announcement that the celebs will dance together for the first time next week. Now if only ABC would whittle the results show down to a more reasonable thirty minutes instead of an unnecessary sixty. A good place to start would be eliminating those minimally interesting but much too long behind-the-scenes montages, such as the long-winded makeup and hairstyling documentary viewers were treated to this week.
Related Links: Dancing with the Stars Recaps
Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays at 8pm EST (performance) and Tuesdays at 9pm EST (results) on ABC.
Clyde Drexler and Elena Grinenko photo courtesy of ABC
