'Dancing with the Stars' cuts Martina Navratilova and Tony Dovolani

Dancing with the Stars axed Martina Navratilova and professional partner Tony Dovolani during Tuesday night's first live fourteenth-season results show on ABC.


The tennis legend and Dovolani became the first couple ousted from the competition based on the combination of the Dancing with the Stars judges' scores they had received during the last two weeks of Monday night performance shows and the home viewer votes that were cast afterwards.

"What I'm going to take away is it was an amazing experience. Again, I just wish that it had lasted longer. I gave it everything I had but I blew it yesterday and it cost me, unfortunately," Navratilova said following her ouster.

"Hopefully I get to do the jive the last week here [for the finale] -- I look forward to coming back and I wish everybody great luck."

Navratilova and Dovolani finished in last place on the judging leaderboard, which featured a combined two-week score.


Navratilova and Dovolani danced a jive that earned only 17 out of 30 possible points from Dancing with the Stars judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli during Monday night's show. Combined with the 20 points they had received from the judges during last week's initial fourteenth-season performance show, the dance left Navratilova and Dovolani in twelfth place on Dancing with the Stars' combined two-week judging leaderboard with 37 out of 60 possible points.

Singer Gavin DeGraw and partner Karina Smirnoff were the other couple still in danger of elimination prior to Navratilova and Dovolani's ouster, as Dancing with the Stars co-host Brooke Burke noted they were actually the other couple in the bottom two based on the combination of the judges' scoring and home viewer votes from both performance shows.

DeGraw and Smirnoff finished in tenth place on the leaderboard with 41 combined points. They danced a jive that earned 21 points from the judges on Monday.

Opera singer Katherine Jenkins and partner Mark Ballas topped the judges' leaderboard and finished in first place with a combined two-week score of 52 points. Jenkins and Ballas performed a jive which received 26 points from the judges on Monday night.

Two couples finished tied for second place on the combined two-week leaderboard with 49 points: Disney Channel star Roshon Fegan and partner Chelsie Hightower, and actor and telenovela star William Levy and partner Cheryl Burke.


Fegan and Hightower performed a quickstep which received 26 points during Monday night's Dancing with the Stars show, while Levy and Burke danced a quickstep which earned 25 points from the judges.

Actor Jaleel White and partner Kym Johnson -- who had finished tied for first place during last week's initial performance show -- finished in fourth place with 48 points on the combined two-week leaderboard after they danced a jive which received 22 points during Monday night's show.

Fifth place on the two-week leaderboard was also a tie between two couples. Comedienne and The View co-host Sherri Shepherd and partner Val Chmerkovskiy finished with 46 points after they performed a jive which earned 23 points during Monday night's show, while entertainment reporter and Extra host Maria Menounos and partner Derek Hough danced a quickstep that received 25 points and also left them with a two-week total of 46 points.

NFL player Donald Driver and partner Peta Murgatroyd ended the night in seventh place on the combined two-week leaderboard with 45 points. They danced a quickstep that received 24 points from the judges during Monday night's show.

Actor and former Melrose Place star Jack Wagner finished in eighth place with partner Anna Trebunskaya with 44 combined points. The couple danced a jive which earned 21 points.


Singer Gladys Knight and partner Tristan MacManus were left in ninth place with 42 combined points after they performed a quickstep which received 19 points during Monday night's show.

Former Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy ended the night in eleventh place on the combined leaderboard with 40 points after they performed a quickstep which received 20 points on Monday night.

The 11 remaining fourteenth-season Dancing with the Stars couples will return for another two-hour performance show on Monday, April 2, after which the judges' scoring and home viewer voting results will be combined and one couple will be eliminated on the season's second results show on Tuesday, April 3.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski