Plan B for DWTS

Posted By: Bridget On: October 11, 2008 Comments: ( 1 )

This season of Dancing With The Stars has been riddled with injuries. For those who are counting, Karina Smirnoff sprained her ankle, Jeffrey Ross scratched his cornea (with help from partner Edyta Sliwinska), Susan Lucci twisted her ankle, Derek Hough hit the back of his head on the ballroom floor during rehearsals, and Misty May-Treanor ruptured her Achilles tendon. Who would have thought that Cloris Leachman would still be injury free??

As someone who has done more than her share of theatre work (that’s right, there is a lot you folks don’t know about me) I can tell you that injuries plague productions. Once they start happening it seems to snowball and the whole experience winds up cursed. I did a production in grad school that we aptly referred to as “The Cherry Plague” instead of “The Cherry Orchard” because nearly all of the cast and crew came down with the most miserable of viruses. Some people looked downright green under those stage lights…and even worse offstage!

So, the wise folks at Dancing With The Stars have come up with a Plan B that Tom Bergeron spoke of in a recent interview. If a cast-member is injured, bad enough to not perform that night but not badly enough to leave the show, they have the option of not performing live and airing their rehearsal footage instead. The judges will give them scores based on the taped footage. That is why the cameras are always running during the on stage rehearsals. And here I thought it was just so they could catch all of the gory injuries.

So now you know. You can rest easy that when Ms. Leachman breaks a hip it won’t necessarily be the end!!