'Dancing With the Stars' results: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin gets the moon boot

To continue with this week’s story theme, Tom Bergeron ominously announced at the start of Tuesday night’s results show that the ballroom dance-off fairy tale would end for one contestant. As it turned out, the dubious honor of being the second star kicked out of the “Dancing With the Stars” Season 10 orbit was awarded to astronaut and moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and his partner, Ashly Costa.

Houston, we have a problem. Though, really, I don’t think anyone can really say that they were surprised by this exit, given that the spry octogenarian was clearly outmatched on the dance floor and spent much of his time at the bottom of the leader board. Still, it wasn’t without some sadness to see Buzz voted out of the running, particularly when watching that quick run-through of his many accomplishments during his exit retrospective. I mean, this guy is woven into the fabric of American history. The dignified way he held up his head, sported a galaxy’s worth of astronaut T-shirts and proudly represented his generation will definitely be missed.

But lest we forget, there was an hour’s worth of filler on the way to this result.

There was the Monday night program recap, delivered with cheeky color and a sprinkle of dash by Len Goodman. Notably, the head judge exercised his retroactive crankiness when he confessed that he would have docked Erin and Maks’ waltz down another point for its lack of content after further consideration.

The encore dance performance, of course, went to high scorers Evan Lysacek and Anna Trebunskaya’s fun and flirty quickstep, which was as much of a treat in its second viewing as it was in its first.

Also a treat: The pro dances. Well, I could have taken or left the country line dance, performed to musical guest Reba McEntire’s first song, “I Want a Cowboy.” Love Reba, and how she gamely matched her shiny, sparkly bronze shirt to the shiny, sparkly “DWTS” set. But the accompanying boot-kicking hoedown by Chmerkovskiy brothers Maks and Val, Edyta Sliwinska and Snejana Petrova – "the old American west is danced by three Russians and a Pole" -- wasn’t really my cup of tea.

On the other hand, I absolutely adored Lacey Schwimmer and Dmitry Chaplin’s lovely romp through Reba’s second number, “Consider Me Gone.” Lacey and Dmitry were brazenly bed-sheeted and bare-chested, respectively, and the routine had the right amount of lift and passion and breath-of-fresh-air quality to match the song perfectly. Can we have them perform a routine on the show every week, please?

Also quite enjoyed Chelsie Hightower and Derek Hough’s hot and spicy paso doble. Though it was a bit of a fake-out when Tom announced that Mark Ballas was also going to be performing in it as well. Was Mark’s muscle injury last week not as serious as previously thought? Would we see some kind of paso doble threesome? Joke's on me: Mark’s performance was on the guitar, silly! The Ballas-Hough Band lives!

What else did we find out during this hour? Niecy Nash wants to put her jiggly parts to use, but can’t with next week’s rumba. Evan refers to the celebraquarium as “the sky box.” Season 8 contestant Melissa Rycroft donned her sideline reporter face, interviewed veteran crowd warmer Cory Almeida and endured the indignity of going through security for a segment on what it’s like to be one of the 720 lucky folks sitting in the “DWTS” studio audience. There was a backstage piece about how well the cast gets along, and how in touch they all are with one another, whether it be through being a good trailer neighbor, cookie ministry (with mama bear Niecy encouraging “her thin beautiful children to eat”) or some cross-country texting.

Which all may have been put together to put Kate Gosselin in a more favorable light. Because after the gloom and doom that she brought along on her face these last three weeks, it was nice to see the paparazzi magnet smile and be more relaxed and chummy for a change. And it really did seem like Kate took the note and tried to smile while on stage waiting for her fate to be revealed. Clearly, fans are voting in droves to keep the reality TV star on the program, as Kate and Tony, despite their middling scores, were saved from being in the Bottom Two once again.

Rather, it was the Bachelor Jake who ended up alongside Buzz in the Bottom Two. Though ultimately, of course, it was Buzz who took one for the team and exited the program. And the rest of the cast lined up to give him a dignified sendoff, which was nice. But was it also unintentionally offensive? Because as I understand it, civilians should not be using that sort of military salute at all.

So voters found the astronaut not Buzz-worthy enough to continue on in this ballroom frontier. Next week, however, promises some exciting new tricks: First of all, there’s the introduction of the Double Score Showdown, in which each couple is given two sets of scores -- one for technique, and one for performance. Not only that, but the program will also apparently be in pay-per-view, as Chad Ochocinco revealed that he and Cheryl will “just make love on the dance floor” for their rumba next week. “Love on the dance floor,” mused Tom. “Who’s going to clean that up?” Ha!

What did you think? Did the right contestant go home? Were you surprised to see Jake and Chelsie in the Bottom Two? Has Season 10 truly turned into “Season Ten-sion” as Len maintained? Do you agree with Reba McEntire that Evan, Erin and Nicole are the contestants to beat?

-- Allyssa Lee

Related:

‘Dancing With the Stars’: Tell us a story

‘Dancing With the Stars’ Results: The first cut

Complete ‘Dancing With the Stars’ coverage on Show Tracker

Photo credit: ABC / Adam Larkey

Comments

[Kathode]

Go Reba! Speak your mind. None of that namby-pamby "Oh, they're all such great dancers, everyone's working so hard" BS from her. She calls 'em as she sees 'em. Hilarious moment! Thank you, Tom Bergeron.

Holy crap, was that pro-paso ever good!!! Derek's not my fave (and I particularly was irked with him this week for "taking the mickey out of the judges" with that non-quickstep), but honestly, I think that paso with Chelsie was the best dance I've EVER seen on this show, in all 10 seasons. The passion, the movement, and the acoustic accompaniment all combined to create a perfect piece of magic that had me enthralled, not wanting it to end.

Loved seeing Dmitry again. I wish he were one of the stars this season. Their dance was lovely too, but I didn't think it went well with the song Reba was singing -- all about the bitter, loveless end of a relationship. It was an odd choice of song. How can you dance to lyrics like that? Overall, good dance filler this week.

I wasn't much of a Melissa fan when she was competing, but I enjoyed seeing her segment. She's quite good on camera: fun, perky, down-to-earth. Makes me wonder how she'd do in the Samantha / Brooke co-host role, with the director yelling in her ear as she tries to interview competitors in the sky box. Brooke was better this week. At least she seems to have learned to finish her question before taking the mic away from her mouth. That was driving me crazy last week.

Maybe by next week she'll have learned not to telegraph with her facial expressions that she's listening to a voice in her ear. Her interview with Nicole, Chad, and Evan had an awkward pause in it, during which I could read in her face that the voice was saying something like, "Draw it out another 20 seconds!" And she had to recover from the shock of that instruction (since she had asked her 3 questions of the 3 couples and thought she was done) and quickly think of something else to ask Evan. ("Which is more stressful: Monday or Tuesday night?") I understand how hard it is to do what she's doing, but watching her get her "sea legs" the past couple weeks has made me realize that Samantha Harris was a lot better at that job than I gave her credit for. My bad.

As for the elimination this week, I'm not surprised by Jake being in the bottom two. His dance wasn't bad (I actually threw a few votes his way), but he danced early, so by the end of the show, voters may have forgotten about him. But I honestly thought Kate would go before Buzz. She's just sooooooo awful! At least Buzz wanted to be there and was cheerful, despite being a terrible dancer.

Kate, on the other hand, has no redeeming qualities at all, from what I can tell -- although she did look cheerier this week than last. But given what a pill she was last week, she had nowhere to go but up. I sincerely hope she gets the boot next week. Any other result would be patently unfair, considering that she has absolutely zero musicality or grace. The woman can't dance, people! Stop voting for her! Free Tony!!!

[erica stephens]

I stopped watching.Kate is making a fool of herself,Buzz can barely walk,the soap opera star is unfamiliar to me,Jake is a jerk,Bruno is a revolting little man and Pamela should win the whole thing,but won,t because women are jealous.So I will read your blog to keep up.It is better than the show.

[Jordan]

I was so hoping that Buzz would outlast Kate!! She is AWFUL!!!

[Courtney Brisbane]

No Kate is not a good dancer, but neither was Buzz Aldrin. Now when the good dancers get voted off before the really bad ones, then you should be concerned about the politics of the game. As far as her not being with her children, how many mothers do you know that are with their children 24/7, whether it's one or eight? Mothers have to work to support their children. As far as Jon is concerned, he's not even worth the effort to write about.
I also noticed that it wasn't just Kate who had a meltdown with her dancing pardner. It was an epidemic.

[Tee]

Hats off to Buzz! What a great and beautiful spirit he is.
And what a hottie he was back in the day...whoa!

Thank you Buzz Aldrin for everything you have given us over the years.
Muah!

[Sharon Taber]

This years show is difficult to watch. I decided to tape it so that I can preview each contestant and fast forward if they are terrible. I never watch the results show because other than the suspense of seeing who gets voted off, it is boring.

[DOUG]

Buzz Aldrin was this season's sacrificial lamb. We all knew he wouldn't last long but it was kind of neat having him on the show anyhow.
Derek Hough is tough to take for me. He's a great dancer. But the constant camera mugging and his attitude rub me the wrong way.
Can we get rid of the annoying Carrie Ann? Please? Some of her comments are "off-the-wall". She also is tough to take.

[Kai]

That embarassment of a dancer aka KATE needs to go home. She doesn't even dance, just walks through the steps. Considering her younger age, she should have been much better than Buzz, who is 80 years old and understandably not as spry as the "youngsters." It's painful to watch her; put me out of my misery! I get that her fans have kept her on, but come on!!!! SHE CAN'T DANCE!

It should have been Kate in the bottom two, not Jake. At least he has some stage presence, rhythym, and knows most of the steps, is entertaining to watch.

[Kai]

Good idea, taping and forwarding through the results show. I could have then bypassed that chipmunk disguised as a human, Melissa. I had to mute the sound so at least not have to listen to her yapping. Throw her some nuts and get her off. Her 15 minutes of fame ran out a long time ago!