DANCING WITH THE STARS Showdown: The Show Gets Personal

Tonight's episode of DANCING WITH THE STARS required the contestants to dance with a backstory, putting the experiences faced by the stars front and center. The celebrities' stories ranged from happiness to tragedy, from hardship to success, and everything in between.

Wendy Williams started off the night, hoping to garner better scores this week than in weeks past. She told of her introduction into the entertainment industry as an entry-level radio announcer, and of her slow but steady rise to where she is today. Although she didn't quite receive her lowest scores of the competition, Wendy's certainly not a dancer by any stretch of the imagination. She (and her two left feet) received fives across the board.

Chelsea Kane then took the floor to a song written for her by her self-proclaimed first love, and wowed the judges, earning a resounding 23 points.

For most emotional performance of the night, Chris Jericho was certainly in contention: he recalled his mother's accident and subsequent downward spiral, leading to her 2005 death. The wrestler - who chose to go by his real name, Chris Irvine, for the performance - delivered shaky moves but high-power emotions, and ended up with three sevens.

Kendra Wilkinson chose to channel her hurt at the public reaction to her relationship with her husband, Hank. Although she seemed uncomfortable with performing a love story-esque dance with Louis (at one point, even laughing that she had to "close her eyes and picture Hank!"), she danced better than she has thus far and wound up with eights from Carrie Ann and Bruno and a seven from Len.

Also bringing forward an emotional performance was Romeo, who recounted the deaths of two of his cousins. Though his scores weren't perfect (a 7 from Carrie Ann, 6 from Len, and 7 from Bruno) a visibly moved Romeo told Brooke that with the performance, he felt like "I couldn't go wrong even if I messed up."

Hines Ward chose a lighter note to base his dance on, celebrating his mother's strength during hard times, and the positive influence that she had in his life. He was all energy and focus, and his mother watched from the audience, with the performance culminating in the judges awarding him an outstanding 25 points.

Next to take to the stage was Petra Nemcova, whose charity, Happy Hearts Fund (www.happyheartsfund.org), helps tsunami victims. Though her height has proved to occasionally be a disadvantage, this week it helped her appear exceptionally graceful and the judges awarded her two 8s, with a 9 from Bruno.

Sugar Ray Leonard looked back to his boxing champion roots for inspiration, and although he wasn't able to have a complete turnaround, he showed improvement. All three of the judges noted the improvement, giving him 20 points total.

Taking a spill at the very beginning of her dance was Kirstie Alley, whose backstory took place in a seventy-two hour period in which she lost her mother and nearly lost her father in a car accident, and later got her first job in a 'Star Trek' film. Her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, apologized profusely after the dance and took the full blame for the fall. Still, the show must go on, and following the misstep, the pair turned in a 21-point performance.

Actor Ralph Macchio followed Sugar Ray's example and returned to his roots, performing to a song from 'The Outsiders' that he dedicated to his wife of twenty-four years. Although his performance wasn't up to his previous dances, it was solid, earning him sevens from all of the judges.

With three weak performance weeks in a row, will Wendy's time finally be up? Or will the fans save her again? Can Ralph hold onto his lead, or will Romeo overtake the top spot? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Viewers may cast their votes for their favorite teams via phone on Monday night during and up to 30 minutes after the "Dancing with the Stars" performance shows. Wireless customers with AT&T may also text message their votes by texting the word "VOTE" to the number that corresponds to the team they want to support (message and data rates may apply). Viewers may also vote online at www.abc.com starting from the opening of each episode on the East Coast, until 8:00 a.m., PT the following day. Fans may cast the maximum limit of votes for each voting method.

"Dancing with the Stars" is the U.S. version of the international smash hit series, "Strictly Come Dancing." This version is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions. Conrad Green serves as executive producer and Rob Wade is co-executive producer. Alex Rudzinski directs. "Dancing with the Stars" is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1 channel surround sound.

 

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