
Injuries and illnesses are part of the storyline for any truly entertaining
Dancing With The Stars season, but
Season 8 is setting a new record, with two celebrities gone from the competition before it even started, and others dealing with serious injuries during the show.
Jewel is out with tibia fractures in both legs. Um, how hard was she rehearsing? Playboy model and
Girls Next Door reality star
Holly Madison lined up to take her place with partner
DmitriDmitry Chaplin.Chaplin.Access Hollywood host
Nancy O'Dell also dropped out, with a knee injury that
will requirerequired surgery.
The Bachelor rejectee
Melissa Rycroft took her spot with partner
Tony Dovolani. Both Nancy and Jewel appeared on the season opener,
whenas theirJewel replacementscheered wereon her officiallyhusband announced,Ty Murray in the competition, and Jewel
also appeared as a musical guest on the first results show
theof nextthe week.season.On the dudes' side:
Steve Wozniak has had a raft of injuries since rehearsals began, including a fractured left foot that didn't keep him from dancing in the premiere (or the results-show danceoff after finishing in the bottom two). Most recently Woz was seen
limping around with a pulled hamstring, whichbut threatenshe hismanaged abilityto recover enough to
danceearn a 10 (total, not from one judge), the second-lowest score in the
nexthistory show.of DWTS, for his foxtrot in week 3.Steve-O missed his second week's performance with a back injury suffered when he attempted a flip at the end of his dress rehearsal with partner
Lacey Schwimmer and landed square on the battery pack he was wearing on his belt. Steve-O and Lacey were scored on their dress rehearsal performance and avoided the bottom two at the next night's results show. Sympathy votes, perhaps?
Steve-O also appeared to injure his ankle on his final move of his week 3 foxtrot.Finally, and least dramatically: Prior to the first show,
Gilles Marini interrupted his rehearsing for a trip to the hospital with "groin pain." (Insert joke here.) Turns out
he has tendonitis, too, in both his groin and his shoulder, but he was ready for the premiere and, in fact, pulled off the best combined scores from his first two dances, along with partner
Cheryl Burke.
Combined with
Karina Smirnoff's February knee surgery and
Mark Ballas' groin strain during the winter
DWTS tour, and we're on pace for the hotly-pursued but never-achieved 100% injury rate!
Other
Dancing With The Stars injuries:
-
Season 5: Marie Osmond takes a digger when she faints during judging
-
Season 6: Christian de la Fuente ruptures his bicep tendon during a performance with
Cheryl Burke-
Season 7: Jeffrey Ross suffers a scratched cornea when his partner
Edyta Sliwinska pokes him in the eye during a rehearsal
- Season 7: The big one! Misty May-Treanor ruptures an Achilles tendon while rehearsing the jive with
Maksim Chmerkovskiy- Season 7 (aka "The Cursed Season"): Susan Lucci breaks a couple bones in her foot rehearsing with
Tony DovolaniVIDEO: DANCING WITH THE STARS INJURIES