'Dancing with the Stars' cuts Belinda Carlisle and Jonathan Roberts

Singer Belinda Carlisle and her partner Jonathan Roberts became the first couple eliminated from Dancing with the Stars' eighth season during last night's live results show broadcast on ABC.


"The first couple [gone]," Carlisle laughed after Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron revealed she was the first celebrity participant sent packing. "Well, I had a great time.  I learned how to dance and I wish I could have done better for Jonathan because he's a great teacher...  I just couldn't ask for a better partner and I'm gonna miss him."

"[I'm going to miss] her fun attitude," Roberts added.  "I'm going to want to see those hips shaking at your next Go-Go's concert, right?"

"I'll certainly try," Carlisle responded.

Carlisle and Roberts were eliminated after competing in a special "Dance Off" -- the show's first-ever -- with Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak and his partner Karina Smirnoff.  The couples were required to compete in the "Dance Off" because they had finished as the bottom two couples based on a combination of the judges' scores from last Monday night's performance episode, this Monday night's performance episode and home viewer votes cast following both broadcasts.


The judges' scores were then thrown out and the two couples were given a chance to perform one of their previous routines a second time, after which the judges' scoring of the new routine would be combined with the prior home viewer votes to determine which couple would be going home.

Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron detailed the handling the new twist to home viewers before the "Dance Off" began.

"Belinda and Jonathan and Steve and Karina had the lowest overall total when we combined your votes from the last two weeks with the judges' scores from both weeks.  They've each chosen a routine to repeat in our first-ever results show 'Dance Off,'" Bergeron said. 

"The judges' slate has been wiped clean [and] our couples will go toe-to-toe for new judges' scores.  The scores they get right now will be combined with your votes from both weeks -- which still count for 50%, as always, of their combined totals."

Carlisle and Roberts opted to re-perform their salsa routine, the dance they had performed on Monday night's performance show, for the "Dance Off."  The judges gave the encore performance 17 out of 30 points -- one point less than they'd received when they had first performed it on Monday night's show. 


"We did see a little bit more hip action," Dancing with the Stars lead judge Len Goodman said after the performance.  "The problem is when you concentrate on one thing, you forget about something else.  So there were a couple of mistakes in there but the hips were an improvement."

"It's true, we really feel for you... [but] you lost your footwork because of it," judge Bruno Tonioli added.  "And it's a shame because like Len said, you did shake it a little more."

"Yeah, your performance level was much better... but that middle section... really... it was like 'Oh no!'" fellow judge Carrie Ann Inaba said.  "I'm sorry, it wasn't an [overall] improvement tonight."

Wozniak and Smirnoff also decided to encore the quick-step performance they had performed on Monday night's performance show.  The judges gave the routine a 17 of out 30 score, which was the same score Wozniak and Smirnoff had received on Monday night.

"Steve, I really, really admire you -- your sunny disposition, your good spirit, your determination -- [but] you are not a good dancer," Tonioli said after the performance.  "You're not... but I tell you, I love watching you... you're entertaining."


"I actually thought you were better tonight," Inaba said.  "I thought you were smoother and when you were in synch [with Karina] you were better in synch than you were yesterday.  But you also had a little [problem] in the middle there."

"Well I admire you because you've got a bad foot... [but] for me there wasn't a lot of improvement," Goodman added.

Since both couples "serendipitously" received identical scores from the judges, Carlisle and Roberts ended up being eliminated based solely on the results of the show's previous home viewer voting.

Sex and the City star Gilles Marini and professional partner Cheryl Burke had finished atop the season's combined two-week judges' leaderboard, receiving a combined score of 51 out of 60 points for their first two dances. 

They were followed by recently jilted The Bachelor bachelorette -- and last-minute replacement dancer -- Melissa Rycroft and her partner Tony Dovolani, who had received 49 out of 60 points for their first two dances.


Olympic gold medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson and partner Mark Ballas had finished in third place with 47 out of 60 points, followed by rapper Kimberly Denise "Lil Kim" Jones and partner Derek Hough, who had received 44 out of 60 points.

Country singer Chuck Wicks and Julianne Hough, his partner and real-life girlfriend, had finished in fifth place with 40 out of 60 points.  They were followed by actress and Denise Richards: It's Complicated star Denise Richards and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Three couples had finished tied for seventh place with 36 out of 60 points: former NFL superstar Lawrence Taylor and partner Edyta Sliwinska, The Girls Next Door star Holly Madison and partner Dmitry Chaplin, and actor David Alan Grier and partner Kym Johnson.

Carlisle and Roberts had finished in tenth place on the combined two-week judges' leaderboard with 35 out of 60 points.

They had been followed by champion bull rider Ty Murray and partner Chelsie Hightower in eleventh place and former Jackass and Dr. Steve-O star Stephen "Steve-O" Glover and partner Lacey Schwimmer, who had finished in twelfth place with 31 out of 60 points.


Wozniak and Smirnoff had finished in thirteenth -- and last -- place with 30 out of 60 points.






About The Author: Steven Rogers