'Dancing With the Stars': Bye bye, Billy Ray

"Dancing With the Stars" trimmed the last bit of fat from its contestants last night, sending home singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus, leaving Joey Fatone, Laila Ali, Ian Ziering and Apolo Anton Ohno to duke it out in the semifinals, which will certainly be a hot race.

Billy Ray, like the other dancers before him who were voted off, simply wasn't cut out for "Dancing With the Stars": he didn't appear even to enjoy dancing that much, let alone have a real skill for it.

However, maybe his greatest achievement was reminding America that he does exist. Before "Dancing With the Stars," like most of the country, you probably remembered Billy Ray as a '90's pop culture trivia footnote, like Right Said Fred or the Macarena. "Achy Breaky Heart", with the accompanying mullet, was practically kitschy funny the minute it became popular.

eBut, not only did Billy Ray give us the old college try when it came to dancing, he did have a pretty good second act in the public eye.  He's reminded us that he's actually a pretty good-looking fellow, still maybe with questionable hair but a good figure. He seems like a nice fella, too, and hard working.

Oh, and he's on a television show, too, and has an album coming out.

We're not going to mention the name of the show, though, or when the album releases, because you've probably already got it memorized from every plub Billy Ray made on "DWTS," which were numerous. His pitching was just about as elegant as his dancing, but Billy Ray got another shot at relevance and handled it well.

Here's hoping he bought his partner, Karina Smirnoff, a big bottle of champagne for her troubles, because when she wept due to Billy Ray's ineptitude, we all wept with her.

(Photo courtesy ABC)

Comments

[Morgan]

That is just tooo bad that Billy Ray Cyrus was voted off. I mean he was sooo cool. But I understand that he doesn't dance. :(