Dancing with the Stars' tenth-season competition got off to a good start for Pussycat Dolls member Nicole Scherzinger and gold-medal Olympic figure skater Evan Lysacek.
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Scherzinger and professional partner Derek Hough topped the leaderboard after they received 25 out of 30 possible points -- including two scores of 9 -- for their Viennese waltz while Lysacek and partner Anna Trebunskaya received 23 points for their own waltz.
Several of the 11 competing celebrities delivered performances that weren't nearly as well received by judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli, including former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, former All My Children actor Aiden Turner and former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star Kate Gosselin.
Aldrin -- an 80-year-old who was the second man to step foot on the man in 1969 -- finished at the bottom of the leaderboard after he and partner Ashley Costa, who was returning from a seven-season Dancing absence, received only 14 points for their cha-cha.
They were followed by Turner and Edyta Sliwinska, who collected only 15 points for they own cha-cha performance, and Gosselin and Tony Dovolani, who received only 16 points for their Viennese waltz.
Two pairs that both performed cha-cha dances -- ESPN reporter Erin Andrews and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy and former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson and Damian Whitewood -- finished tied for third place behind Scherzinger and Lysacek with 21 points each.
Former The Bachelor star Jake Pavelka and professional partner Chelsie Hightower -- a fellow former reality TV contestant who competed on the fourth season of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance in 2008 -- placed fifth after receiving 20 points for their Viennese waltz.
Three more couples -- NFL star Chad Ochocinco and partner Cheryl Burke; former Beverly Hills 90210 actress Shannen Doherty and partner Mark Ballas; and actress, comedian and Clean House host Niecy Nash and partner Louis van Amstel -- all finished tied for sixth place on the judges' leaderboard.
Ochocinco and Burke and Nash and van Amstel each received 18 points for their cha-cha dances while Doherty and Ballas performed a Viennese waltz that also received the same score.
All 11 tenth-season Dancing with the Stars couples will return for another two-hour performance show on March 29, after which the judges' scoring and home viewer voting results from both shows will be combined and one pair will be eliminated on the season's first results show on March 30.
Monday's premiere also featured the debut of seventh-season Dancing with the Stars champion Brooke Burke, who is replacing the Samantha Harris as the show's new co-host.
About The Author: Steven Rogers
