He can’t Carey on! Price Is Right host Drew’s prediction is proved right as he is kicked off Dancing With The Stars
As the host of a TV quiz show, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Drew Carey would be so good at guessing the winners and losers on his shows.
The Price Is Right host started his week of rehearsals on Dancing With The Stars saying he knew he was going to be eliminated – and, as predicted, ended the show going home.
‘I feel like this is my last week,’ he told his dance pro Cheryl Burke as they started rehearsals, pointing out they were ‘eight points behind the next person’.
Despite getting some of his best scores – including a nine – while dressed in an outrageous red pimp suit for a tango to Rick James’s Super Freak, Drew lost out as the viewers’ votes from las week did not save him from such low judges’ marks.
‘I got further than I thought I would, to tell you the truth,’ Drew said after his elimination.
Insisting he had loved the show for years and imagined being a part, he said: ‘I just want to say thanks for letting me borrow this dance floor to fulfill this fantasy.’
Drew had tears in a pre-taped interview, shown after his elimination, when speaking about what being on the show had meant to him.
‘I made a lot of really good friends here,’ he said, his voice already wavering. ‘Everybody’s so nice. There’s a really good spirit here and a really good friendship and community.’
Now with full tears in his red eyes, he added: ‘And that’s really been the highlight, all the people.’
Even though he expected to be going home, he had insisted on putting on the best performance he could, and won high praise – especially for his outrageous image.
‘I’ve been a baller, I’ve been a player – I’ve never been a pimp,’ Drew had joked to Cheryl when she told him his persona for the dance, with guest judge Redfoo from LMFAO calling him ‘a pimp to the tenth degree’ with ‘a skanky pimp face’
‘I’m like a dad at the wedding,’ Drew joked of his moves, with judge Bruno Tonioli quipping: ‘After a few drinks.’
Meanwhile, while the show is no stranger to stripteases, lots of flesh and outrageous outfits, it was still a shock to see all that happening on the judges’ table.
Redfoo was outrageous as always, wearing shin shorts and a bright red jacket showing plant of chest beneath.
But more shocking was to see all the judges wearing baseball caps, reflective clothing and even wacky bright coloured glasses as they danced along as he performed one of his hits, Let’s Get Ridiculous.
And Bruno Tonioli seemed determined to keep up with him as at one point he whipped off his jacket and doing an over-the-top striptease-like dance – showing off a bright red skin-tight red t-shirt that matched his equally red trousers.
‘Can I ask you, is it cold in here because both your nipples popped just then,’ host Tom Bergeron joked of his tight shirt, exposed while explaining how ‘red hot’ he thought NeNe Leakes’ performance was.
While Bruno appeared keen to keep up with Redfoo in the outrageous style points, the pop star’s exaggerated comments in judging recalled the over-the-top dance judge, too.
After joking that he was ‘the first guest judge to make Bruno look like an accountant’, Bergeron later joked that he was ‘Bruno 2.0’, and raised a huge laugh when he quipped: ‘It’s almost as if you are Carrie Ann and Bruno’s love child.’
On the dance floor there was a clear winner as ice skater Meryl Davis and her dance partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy got four perfect 10s for their tango to Calvin Harris’s Feel So Close.
But their rehearsals had been fraught as Maks felt the pressure to improve after Meryl admitted disappointment at only getting 9s the previous week despite rave comments.
In fact they seemed destined to fight, with Maks at one point angrily asking her: ‘Why are you so f***ing timid?’
But she guessed that he was scared because he wanted them to win so much, and he admitted: ‘I’m terrified, not scared. It’s really crazy, I must be the weakest freaking person on this cast.’
Bruno called their dance a ‘spine-chilling, totally gripping film noir of a tango’, while Carrie Ann Inaba said she was ‘speechless’
When she finally found the words, she told them: ‘From my heart there is something so magical happening between these two. It’s mind boggling and it’s truly artistic excellence.’
Len Goodman, meanwhile, told Meryl: ‘Maks dances full on. You’re the first celebrity that’s been able to match him and keep up with him.’
‘I say, “ET phone home”,’ Redfoo said. ‘You know why? Because that was out of this world. It was like you were gliding across the solar system from star to star, it was so magical. ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.’
The power of their performance also brought out one of the most light-hearted moments of the evening. Asked what had brought out the better side of him, Maks said it was because Meryl had been the first person to ask, ‘Hold my hand’ – leading fellow dance pro Tony Dovolani to step forward and gently clasp his hand.
Close behind was an incredible jive by Amy Purdy and Derek Hough that got two 10s, with the judges giving 9s only doing so because of a slight slip-up in the middle of their routine.
‘Marry me, darling, marry me. Seriously,’ Bruno asked her following her performance where she dressed as a bride with Derek crashing the wedding.
‘This is a real live superhero. What you have achieved most of us would consider impossible. I don’t think I’ve seen in 18 seasons here and 11 in the UK anybody doing what you’ve done tonight.’
Carrie Ann agreed, saying: ‘I swear you had the best kicks and flicks I’ve ever seen out of anyone, ever.’ But she admitted: ‘Len is also right there was a bit of a slip up.’
Amy’s amazing performance was right inline with her prediction in rehearsals, when she said: ‘I’m an Olympian so I know timing is everything. I know that now is the time for me to break free from the pack and head to the top.’
But she also got tearful at the thought of no longer having her ‘incredible once-in-a-lifetime moments with Derek’. ‘I just don’t want it to end,’ she said.
Danica McKellar and Charlie White also had strong nights, each getting 9s across the board.
Charlie’s Cha Cha Cha to C+C Music Factory’s Everybody Dance Now had Bruno once again dancing wildly, while Carrie Ann called it ‘hot, sexy and funky’.
Meanwhile Danica’s dance to Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody had Bruno praising her for having a ‘playful verve and vivacity of a purring little kitten’. ‘Adorable all the way through,’ he said.
As they waited for her scores, her pro dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy fiddled constantly with her hair, admitting: ‘It’s a nervous tic – when I get nervous I start braiding things.’
‘What do you do when you’re calm, give a perm?’ co-host Erin Andrews shot back.
Val also made an unexpected shout-out to Danica’s boyfriend, saying: ‘I want to say thank you to her incredible boyfriend Scott who’s very understanding and allowed me to dance with this beautiful person.’
When Erin suggested Val was doing him a favor by teaching him sexy moves she would take home, Val smiled and said: ‘You’re welcome, Scott.’
After getting the first perfect score of the season last week, James Maslow had a much tougher time with a quick step to Grease’s The One That I Want.
‘As a performer you’re the one that I want – but the technique is more “tears on my pillow”, I’m afraid,’ Len told him.
‘You’re footwork was heavy, you flexed your knees too much, there was a rule infringement when you went into shadow position. It was fast – but speed came in and the style went out.’
While Len gave an 8, the other three judges gave 9s, with Bruno calling it ‘absolutely wonderful’.
NeNe Leakes and Tony Dovolani were seen emotional kissing and making up after their fight the previous week, with Tony bringing a beautiful bouquet of flowers to rehearsals.
And there were more kisses as NeNe – dressed all in yellow – stopped for a quick kiss with her husband as her routine took her through the audience and onto the dance floor.
‘You’ve cornered the market in fun and entertainment, you really have,’ Len told her, adding that she needs to ‘work a little more on your technique’ to get further.
‘You looked like an entrepreneur out there – because you OWNED that,’ Redfoo told her.
They got three 8s and one 9, and afterwards NeNe told Erin: ‘We had a little tiff but Tony and I are very much in love.’
Erin seemed more impressed with Tony’s shirtless physique, asking him: ‘Did we eat this week?’
Candace Cameron Bure had the lowest score of the remaining contestants, but still respectable with all 8s for her Cha Cha Cha to Icona Pop’s I Love It.
She once again struggled with playing sexy, saying during rehearsals: ‘Being the sexy girl isn’t inherently me.’
But after her dance, Bruno gushed: ‘Candace, look at you! The thing is you’re sexy, you just don’t know it!’
‘There are moments of brilliance,’ he said, adding that ‘there are moments when you are almost stopping yourself’, a comment all four judges agreed was letting her down.
