DWTS Week Six: Injuries Shadow the Stars

ABC/KELSEY McNEAL

Week six of Dancing With the Stars brought more unfamiliar routines—for everyone involved!

Resident Brit Len Goodman, taking a break from his crazy bicontinent routine, was replaced for the night by guest judge Michael Flatley, the Chicago-born, yet Irish-brogued, Lord of the Dance whose feet have been known to fly at world-record paces.

Which means Len missed the first group number—yay, Cloris dancing hip-hop—as well as more disorder than usual in the court of ballroom justice thanks to numerous injuries and various other forms of bodily discomfort.

Here's how it all went down:

Maurice Greene: We stand corrected, not that we ever affirmatively said that the Olympic track star couldn't dance the slow numbers. Greene's Viennese waltz was a little stiff, but his clean shavenness looks awfully good and he shouldn't plummet too much in the judges' esteem this week.
Judges said:  21; "Cheers, that was beautiful stuff," offered Flatley…before he and the others pointed out the raggedy edges on that waltz, which is supposed to look, according to Bruno Tonioli, like a surfer upon the waves. "At times, you looked like a surfer on dry land."

Lance Bass: We doubt that Len would have appreciated all the mumbo-jumbo that marked the beginning of their jive routine, but once he and Lacey Schwimmer started dancing in sync—they were awesome. Now, he just needs to reprove himself in the ballroom numbers.
Judges said: 27. Bass is back. "That's the way to take on the stage and sell yourself," Bruno raved.

Susan Lucci: The soap star left some scum on that glass box tonight. Lucci keeps managing to make this spry and saucy Latin dances look, well, slow. We know that she's dancing on a minor fracture, but while last week's bottom-two performance hid the injury fairly well, her mambo tonight seemed to only exploit it. Many, many timid steps and bent knees.
Judges said: 23. Huh? "I think that, this week, you took my criticism and you broke the box," Carrie Ann said. Whatever.

Brooke Booke: Last week's performance-show jitterbug apparently only further injured the former model's bruised right foot, which she tweaked during rehearsal. But after some light therapy and other treatments for a disrupted tendon…she still looked a little unsure of herself. Burke's rumba was elegant and graceful, but perhaps she trod a bit gingerly on her damaged foot.
Judges said:  26, thanks to a 10 from the Riverdancer among them. She took Flatley's breath away ("absolutely intoxicating," he said), but Carrie Ann admitted that this wasn't Burke's best dance. "We know what you can do—tonight you were under par," Bruno added.

ABC/KELSEY McNEAL

Cloris Leachman: Cute premise, but then Cloris started moving—barely. The last couple weeks have been good to the Oscar winner, but tonight's cha-cha poked more than a few holes in the argument that she should stay. The 82-year-old grandma looked lovely, but that one-arm, one-leg spin around the floor was just nervewracking!
Judges said: 15. Carrie Ann, bless her, really told it like it is. "We lost Toni Braxton for this, and that kind of makes me sad," she said.

Cody Linley: Felled by stomach pains last week, Julianne Hough is due to have her appendix removed tomorrow, meaning she'll miss the elimination show. But tonight, she was a sexy samba teacher passing her wisdom down to her slightly younger pupil. Result: Cody's samba was his most self-assured and intense, if not necessarily his most technically impressive, dance yet.
Judges said: 23. Carrie Ann loved it, but Bruno thought the 18-year-old got it "completely wrong."

Warren Sapp: We think the NFL great rumba'd like a champ. It was far from perfect, but Sapp got sensual, toning down the bounce and using his unbelievable speed to be everywhere Kym Johnson needed him to be.
Judges said: 25. Flately thought it was great to see a "big, powerful man be so sensitive," but all acknowledged that Sapp made some mistakes.

It's kill or be killed—so who did what tonight?!