Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars eliminated two celebrity and professional pairings in a special double-elimination twist during Tuesday night's third live fifteenth-season results show on ABC.

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Former 98 Degrees singer Drew Lachey and professional partner Anna Trebunskaya and IndyCar racer Helio Castroneves and partner Chelsie Hightower became the third and fourth couples ousted from the competition after being declared the bottom-two couples based on the combination of the Dancing with the Stars judges' scores they had received during Monday night's performance show and the home viewer votes that were cast afterwards.

"Like [Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron] said earlier, it's gonna be tough regardless of who went home tonight. But I could honestly say I would not change a thing. Everybody questioned why I would come back. I came back because this is fun. We had a great time. I had an amazing partner. We had a deal though. You were never supposed to say my name [Tom]! You welched on the deal!" Lachey joked following his ouster mid-episode.

"Can I just mention the good news about this season is I get to say, 'Hello' again to old friends. The bad news is I have to say goodbye to them on occasion. But, my buddy," Bergeron said as he hugged Lachey.

Monday night's performance show, the third performance show of the Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars season, featured the All-Star celebrities performing dances they had creatively envisioned and then directed. Asked by the judges to come up with never-before-seen dances with their partners, the celebrities were instructed to add their own unique spin, personality and showmanship to iconic routines from past seasons.

Lachey and Trebunskaya tied for ninth place on Monday night's judging leaderboard with actress Kirstie Alley and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy after each couple received 24 out of 30 possible points from Dancing with the Stars' new scoring system -- which features 0.5 intervals for the first time in the show's history -- for their dance routines from Dancing with the Stars judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.

Lachey and Trebunskaya performed a cha cha routine. Lachey won Dancing with the Stars' second season with Cheryl Burke in 2006. Alley and Chmerkovskiy also danced the cha cha. The pair originally competed together and finished as the runner-up couple during Dancing with the Stars' twelfth season in 2011.

"Oh absolutely," Castroneves told Dancing with the Stars co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet when asked whether he was glad he had returned to the show to dance again following his elimination at the end of the broadcast.

"I want to thank actually Team Penske and Indy Racing League as well to let me do this. I want to thank as well my family, Chelsie and I want to thank America! You guys voted for me and I couldn't be happier. Thank you."

"Honestly, it was so fun. We had such a blast. He was such a fun partner to be with -- always such a joy. [He] always had such an amazing attitude. He really, really wanted. He loved every minute of it and it makes your job so much more enjoyable when you're with somebody that just truly enjoys it, and he was the epitome of that," Hightower added.

Castroneves and Hightower finished in a four-way tie for fourth place on the judges' leaderboard with actor Gilles Marini, Olympic gold medalist speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno and singer and former Disney Channel star Sabrina Bryan -- who was allowed to enter the competition after winning the "Viewers' Choice: All-Star" vote in August -- after they all earned 25.5 points for their dances from the judges.

Castroneves and Hightower performed a quickstep routine. Castroneves won Dancing with the Stars' fifth season in 2007 with Julianne Hough.

Marini and partner Peta Murgatroyd danced the tango. Marini was previously paired with Burke for Dancing with the Stars' eighth season in 2009 which he had finished in second place. Ohno, who won Dancing with the Stars' fourth season with Julianne Hough in 2007, performed a foxtrot routine with partner Karina Smirnoff.

Bryan and partner Louis van Amstel danced the paso doble. Bryan originally competed with Mark Ballas her first time around on Dancing with the Stars' fifth season in Fall 2007. The pair had finished in seventh place after what was considered unexpectedly early elimination.

First place on Monday night's leaderboard also represented a tie between reality TV star Melissa Rycroft and professional partner Tony Dovolani and soap star Kelly Monaco and partner Val Chmerkovskiy. The two couples topped the leaderboard after they received 27 points for their performances from the judges. Both pairs earned the highest score of the All-Stars edition yet to date.

Rycroft and Dovolani, who was also partnered with Rycroft when she won Dancing with the Stars' eighth season in 2009, performed a samba routine. Monaco, who won Dancing with the Stars' inaugural season in 2005 with partner Alec Mazo, and Val Chmerkovskiy danced a paso doble. 

Olympic gold medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson and partner Derek Hough landed in third place on the leaderboard following their quickstep routine which received 26.5 points from the judges. Johnson won Dancing with the Stars' eighth season with Ballas in 2009.

NFL football star Emmitt Smith and partner Burke, who was also partnered with Smith when he won Dancing with the Stars' third season in 2006, finished in eighth place on the judges' leaderboard after they received 25 points for their paso doble performance.

Reality TV star Bristol Palin and partner Ballas, who was also partnered with Palin when she finished third on Dancing with the Stars' eleventh season in 2010, finished in eleventh -- and last -- place at the bottom of the leaderboard after they performed a paso doble routine which received only 22.5 points from the judges. However, 22.5 marked the couple's highest score of the season thus far.

Also during last night's live results show, Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Bryan and van Amstel were in jeopardy to be eliminated from the competition alongside the bottom-two couples. However, Bergeron and Burke-Charvet did not announce whether they were actually the other two lowest vote-getting couples.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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