'Dancing with the Stars' axes Keyshawn Johnson and dance partner Sharna Burgess

Dancing with the Stars cut Keyshawn Johnson and his professional dance partner Sharna Burgess during Monday night's live seventeenth-season broadcast on ABC. 


The former NFL football player and Keyshawn Johnson: Tackling Design star and Burgess became the first couple eliminated from the competition based on the combination of the Dancing with the Stars judges' scores they had received during the last two weeks of performance shows and the home viewer votes that were cast following last Monday night's show.

"I told you I'd be going home in Week 2!" Johnson joked, adding that "the experience" has been the best part of competing on Dancing with the Stars.

"For a guy that's never even bobbed his head in the car, I think that the fact I have the experience of dance and learned what dancing is all about with Sharna teaching me is something amazing to me. I don't care, at this point, about whether we win or lose. It's just the fact that I had the opportunity to learn from her. I think she's an amazing choreographer, and her time will come! I wish I could've done more to help her out."

Johnson and Burgess finished in eleventh place on Monday night's combined two-week leaderboard with 35 out of 60 possible points from Dancing with the Stars judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli. The couple danced a samba routine which earned 18 out of 30 possible points from the judges during last night's show.


Comedian Bill Engvall and partner Emma Slater were the other couple still in danger of elimination prior to Johnson and Burgess' ouster, although Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron and co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet revealed Engvall and Slater weren't necessarily in the bottom-two couples based on the combination of the judges' scores and America's vote.

Engvall and Slater landed in tenth place on the judges' leaderboard with 39 total points after they danced a jive routine which received 21 points from the judges last night.

Actress and Glee star Amber Riley and partner Derek Hough finished in first place on the Dancing with the Stars' combined two-week leaderboard with 51 total points. Riley and Hough performed a jive which received 24 points from the judges during Monday night's show.

Disney Channel star Corbin Bleu and partner Karina Smirnoff finished in second place on the leaderboard with 50 total points after they performed a jive routine which received 26 points.

Third place on the two-week leaderboard went to actress and former Step It Up and Dance host Elizabeth Berkley and partner Val Chmerkovskiy who walked away from the night with 49 total points after they earned 25 points from the judges for their samba routine.


Singer and former The Voice social media correspondent Christina Milian and partner Mark Ballas tied for fourth place with former The Osbournes and Armed & Famous star Jack Osbourne and partner Cheryl Burke. Both couples earned a total of 47 points. Milian and Ballas danced the paso doble which earned 25 points, while Osbourne and Burke received 24 points for their rumba last night.

Sixth place also represented a tie between actor and Pretty Little Liars star Brant Daugherty and actress and former The Talk co-host Leah Remini with 45 total points. Daugherty danced a rumba with partner Peta Murgatroyd that earned 23 points. Remini and partner Tony Dovolani performed a samba routine which earned 24 points from the judges. 

Jersey Shore and Snooki & Jwoww star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and partner Sasha Farber finished in eighth place on the combined two-week leaderboard with 43 points. They danced a rumba routine which received 20 points from the judges Monday night.

Actress Valerie Harper and partner Tristan MacManus landed in ninth place on the leaderboard with 40 total points. They earned 19 points for their paso doble last night.

Former Bill Nye the Science Guy star Bill Nye and partner Tyne Stecklein finished in twelfth -- and last -- place at the bottom of the leaderboard with only 31 total points. They performed a paso doble routine Monday night which received 17 points from the judges.


To read all the couples' initial scores from last Monday night's debut performance show, click here.

The 11 remaining seventeenth-season Dancing with the Stars couples will return for another two-hour performance show on Monday, September 30, during which the judges' scoring from both weeks and home viewer voting results following last night's show will be combined and one couple will be eliminated






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski