STEP OFF: Injuries Abound, Contestants Still Hit Perfect Scores on DANCING

In honor of the exorbitantly important elimination tomorrow – you know, the one that will essentially determine what sort of country America will come to be known as in the near future – DANCING WITH THE STARS is foregoing their own elimination this week. Instead, we'll be treated to a double-elimination next week.

Are you maniacally twiddling your fingers as I am?

So, anyway, instead we're left with a single night of DANCING WITH THE STARS: ALL STARS, aptly labeled "Fusion Week." And wouldn't you know, everything became a whole lot more clear when it was labeled as such. DANCING is like a big ol' fusion of bad TV and decent TV: the costuming from TODDLERS and TIARAS, the financial aspirations of AMERICAN IDOL, and the casts from those old sitcoms that your grandma used to make you sit through and the whole time you kept begging her to turn it off but all she wanted to do was iron and watch Kirstie Alley on VERONICA'S CLOSET. You know, those sitcoms that now only exist on the VHS tapes in your basement or on TV Land.

So 'Fusion Week' actually attempted to meld multiple dance styles into a single song, and, for the most part, it went pretty well. The competitors also took part in a swing dance marathon, unfortunately. Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani outlasted the others in the judges' eyes, and they were awarded the extra 10 points. Check out the scores below:

Apolo Anton Ohno & Karina Smirnoff: Cha Cha/Paso Doble, 27/30 (individual routine) + 6/10 (dance marathon) = 33/40
Selected quote from Len: "You came out and really attacked this. The cha-cha-cha was crisp and clean. The paso had some fire. Apolo Ohno … Apolo Oh Yes."

Emmitt Smith & Cheryl Burke: Rumba/Samba, 27.5 + 7 = 34.5/40
Bruno: "You did it with ease … that was wonderful."

Kirstie Alley & Maksim Chmerkovskiy: Quickstep/Samba, 24 + 4 = 28/40
Bruno: "Whatever you do is always entertaining. Only you can turn Cinderella into a stripper. For that, it was brilliant."

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Tyler is currently finishing his senior year of college in Chicago while working on the News Desk at BroadwayWorld. He has also worked in the public relations industry at Margie Korshak Inc., working on campaigns for Broadway In Chicago, including The Book of Mormon, Kinky Boots, Jersey Boys, and more.