Jeffrey Ross and Edyta Sliwinska cut from 'Dancing with the Stars'

Comedian Jeffrey Ross and professional partner Edyta Sliwinska became the first pair eliminated from Dancing with the Stars' seventh season on Tuesday.


After suffering a scratched cornea from Edyta's hand while practicing earlier in the day, Jeffrey's cha-cha performance to Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music" was not well received by either the judges, who gave it a combined score of 12 -- the night's lowest -- during Monday night's premiere of Dancing with the Stars seventh season.

"Well, the flirting was good," judge Carrie Ann Inaba had said of Jeffrey and Edyta's performance. "It is hard because I know you injured yourself and I've had that injury and it's very, very painful so I admire you for getting out there. It's tough to look at the lights. But the form was bad, the musicality was off and I just didn't feel like you were having a great time... I mean to that song you gotta get into it!"

"I haven't seen such an ungainly carnage since I saw Cloverfield in 3-D," added judge Bruno Tonioli.  "It's just, you know, nothing really worked."

Judge Len Goodman did not comment on any specifics of the pair's performance, but credited Jeffrey's hard work in the competition.


"I think everyone who comes onto Dancing with the Stars is a winner because of the commitment that you all made," he said.  "Well done Jeff."

"The doctor said not to dance, [but] I was born to dance -- I'll go blind dancing if I have to," Jeffrey joked to Dancing with the Stars co-host Samantha Harris following the performance. "My one thing was I can only see out of one eye [so] I can only see half of Kim Kardashian's booty!"

However, following the first eleven performances during Tuesday's live broadcast, Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron revealed that Jeffrey and Edyta had been eliminated and Kardshian and partner Mark Ballas -- the only other dance couple that still remained on stage with them -- had advanced to the competition's next performance round.

Although they'd called it cold, lacking chemistry and hard for the audience to connect, Kardshian and Ballas had received a 19 score from the judges for their Monday night foxtrot performance.

After mouthing "We lost?" to Edyta when their elimination was announced, Jeffrey had fun with the judges after his performance was called a "very short, but sweet journey" by Samantha.


"What a nightmare... they told me Edyta would be easy on the eyes," Jeffrey joked.

"[But] I was sure it was going be your husband who poked me, and not you," he continued as he turned to Edyta.

However, after calling her a "champion in waiting," Jeffrey said Edyta a "first class, world class human being" and told the crowd that "if I can do it, you can do it."

"I would have to say that I'm more 'ha-ha-ha' than 'cha-cha-cha.," the comedian said with a smile.

Following up on her outrageous antics from Monday's show -- during which she lifted her leg onto the judges' table in front of Bruno, fell to her knees in front of Len, sat on Carrie Ann's lap and joked that the show's backstage staff couldn't add numbers after grabbing an off-camera cue card with her combined score written on it -- 82-year-old actress and former The Mary Tyler Moore Show star Cloris Leachman joked further on Tuesday, leaving co-hosts Tim and Samantha scrambling to return the show to normalcy.


"It doesn't matter. I've bribed the judges so they don't have to waste the time, I gave them ten dollars each for a tip," Cloris joked before the judges got a chance to give their feedback on her quick step performance with dance partner Corky Ballas.

Following her combined judges score of 16 -- the same score she and Corky received for their cha-cha on Monday -- Cloris joked that she was leaving and called for her chauffeur, before revealing her mind set behind her antics so far on the show.

"I'm just having the most fun time," she said with a smile.

"Seriously I'm not gonna be voted off [though,] so don't do it!" she added sternly as her phone number came on the screen.

One day after she'd suffered a sprained ankle during practices and they'd finished with the first performance show's second lowest score of 14, Karina Smirnoff and celebrity partner Rocco DiSpirito rebounded to score a 21 in the show's second round.


Following the performance, Karina credited Rocco with helping her through her injury.

"He was very supportive and helped me throughout this whole problem," Karina said of Rocco's support. "And tonight he came out and gave 'hips of fury' on the floor.'"

Former Rock Star host Brooke Burke and partner Derek Hough once again led the judges' scoring, landing a 26 for their quick step after scoring a 23 with their cha-cha during Monday's show.

After combining the judges' scores for last night's performances with home viewer votes, a second dancing pair will be sent home during tonight's elimination show, which will air at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.






About The Author: Steven Rogers