A week after calling the producers of Dancing with the Stars “liars,” Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak last night received his lowest score and is in danger of getting tossed from the program.
Wozniak and his professional partner, Karina Smirnoff, were awarded by the judges just 10 points out of a possible 30 for their samba, the lowest score for the night by a significant margin, and under their first two weeks’ scores of 12 and 17.
Last week, Wozniak danced with a fractured foot, and Monday, he performed with a pulled hamstring. At one point during practices, he wondered whether he would have to drop out. “It feels to me right now that there’s no way in the world that I possibly will be dancing on Monday,” he said late last week after heading to the hospital for the second time since the show started.
After hearing the judges’ comments, he may have wished he had taken himself out of the competition.
“I just hope that the viewers enjoyed it as an entertainment, because for me it was consistent,” said judge Len Goodman. “It was terrible from start to finish.”
Bruno Tonioli, who has been Wozniak’s harshest critic — in the first week, he said Wozniak reminded him of a “Teletubby going mad” — didn’t let up last night. “Steve, get on your knees and beg [for] forgiveness,” Tonioli said. “This was the worst samba I’ve ever seen, I think. It was just bad.”
Both Goodman and Tonioli gave the couple a score of 3 out of 10, while the third judge, Carrie Ann Inaba, awarded Wozniak and Smirnoff a 4. The night’s next-lowest score was 15, given to Jackass star Steve-O and his partner, Lacey Schwimmer.
Wozniak fired off what sounded at first like a parting shot at the judges. “I don’t believe they’re right,” Wozniak said, then switched gears. “I think we deserved less … but I’ll take it.”
Like last week, if Wozniak and Smirnoff are one of the two couples with the lowest combined scores — the judges’ numbers are blended with the viewer call-in and online votes — they will be forced into a sudden-death “dance off.” Last Tuesday, Wozniak survived elimination by beating Belinda Carlisle, former lead singer for the Go-Go’s.
Before that, however, Wozniak called the shows producers “liars” and accused them of rigging the voting to make sure he would be in the bottom two. Just before the results show aired last Tuesday, however, Wozniak posted an apology to his Facebook page. “I hurt a lot of honest people,” he said in the online message.
ABC will air the results and dance-off Tuesday night at 9 Eastern time.
