Will ‘DWTS’ Double Elimation Leave Fans, Dancers Bruised?

“New competition tonight!!! It’s going to be so cool!!! Mambo, waltz, jitterbug. Who’s going to do well?”

That is the question facing the couples on tonight’s ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ The surprise is the person asking that question - none other than ‘DWTS’ judge Carrie Ann Inaba.

Along with fellow judges Len Goodman and Bruno Tamboli, Inaba roused the ire of many ‘Dancing’ fans last week when their comments led voters astray, causing former Olympian Natalie Coughlin to be sent home while less adept dancers Michael Irvin and Louie Vito remained in the competition.

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“The round of voting was a disgrace,” one fan commented on Fancast. “Louie should have been gone last week. He’s awful and more importantly, he doesn’t seem to care one way or another.”

“Shame, shame, shame,” another fan wrote in.

The show “has become completely ridiculous,” added yet another of the hundreds who vented. “I cannot believe Natalie is off and Michael Irvin and Louie the Snowboarder is still on. She was a much better dancer from the beginning. Just proves the point that many have been saying for awhile, it is more of a popularity contest than a real competition.”

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Tonight’s show also happens to be the double-elimination nail-biter. Will Irvin and Vito falter? Will others succumb to the stress? To other unseen obstacles? Despite the pressure, the competitors seemed to be heading into the nerve-wracking installment well-rehearsed and fairly relaxed – but still feeling the pain.

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“We r halfway through being ready,” Karina Smirnoff told fans online over the weekend. “The amount of work is unreal.”

“Man, I thought the jive was hard,” said Mya. “The jitterbug is much harder and more dangerous.”

Dangerous?

“Just finished rehearsal, got dropped on my head accidentally,” Lacey Schwimmer wrote on her Twitter page Sunday. “Big headache, but I’ll be fine.”

Kym Johnson was also banged up.

“Fell during camera blocking,” she wrote. “I’m ok though. I’m so glad Donny was there to catch me when I fell.”

Early this morning, Kelly Osbourne and her partner, Louie van Amstel were the first on the set. But, as she said, “I still can’t wake up.”

Osbourne exhausted herself over the weekend searching, albeit unsuccessfully, for a dress to wear to her birthday party. She turns 25 on Tuesday, but is celebrating on Monday since she has to work until 11 pm.

“Even though I’m stressing, I really can’t wait for my birthday,” she tweeted on Twitter. “If worst comes to worst and I don’t find a dress, I will still have fun.”

The only person who isn’t tired, stressing or nervous?

That would be Coughlin, who packed up her stuff and returned to Northern Caiffornia, stopping for a vacation with her husband in Big Sur.

“The aftermath of being booted from DWTS is that my spray tan is now (unevenly) wearing off,” she wrote online. “Splotchy and disgusting.”

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