Dancing with the Stars Sends Home Lamar Odom After a Night of Big Announcements and Sad News
Dancing with the Stars has eliminated its second season 28 celebrity contestant.
During Monday’s live episode of the ABC reality dancing competition series, the show said goodbye to Lamar Odom.
After the competing stars and their pro dancing partners performed choreographed numbers for judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and guest judge Leah Remini, co-hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews revealed that former NBA player Odom, 39, and Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown were in jeopardy of elimination.
Unfortunately, Odom and his partner Peta Murgatroyd — who earned a score of 20 out of 40 from the judges for their Viennese Waltz — were sent home.
RELATED: Dancing with the Stars Reveals Celebrity and Pro Pairings During Season 28 Premiere
“It takes so much courage to come back out here after constantly not getting great scores and really be vulnerable,” Inaba had commended Odom, who previously was married to Khloé Kardashian, following his performance on Monday night.
Odom’s elimination came after his former competitor Lauren Alaina revealed that her cousin Holly went into a coma in the last week.
“I had a crazy, crazy week,” Alaina, 24, told co-host Erin Andrews after dancing the foxtrot to “Jolene” by Dolly Parton. “My cousin Holly had a brain bleed and she slipped into a coma earlier this week. I went home and we missed a few days of rehearsals. And I was like really stressed and my family told me to come here and I want to dedicate the dance to you, Holly.”
The country star remained optimistic, though. “We’re praying for you. We’re believing in a full recovery,” Alaina continued. “We love you.”
She earned a score of 32 out of 40 with her partner Gleb Savchenko.
While Alaina had sad news to share, James Van Der Beek had some happy news — he and wife Kimberly are expecting their sixth child.
“We are so excited there’s a new little Van Der Beek in there,” the 42-year-old actor said when the DWTS cameras accompanied him and his family for Kimberly’s first sonogram.
Van Der Beek, who scored decently for his quickstep, shared the news with his partner Emma Slater and revealed that it didn’t come without some heartbreak along the way.
“We’ve had five kids. We’ve had three miscarriages in-between those,” Van Der Beek told Slater, continuing in an on-camera interview, “Miscarriage is something people really don’t talk about and we want to recognize that it happens to people. We wanted to destigmatize that as much as we possibly could.”
Odom’s elimination came one week after NFL legend Ray Lewis announced that he was dropping out of the competition on the Sept. 30 episode.
While training for his cha-cha with pro dancer Cheryl Burke, Lewis re-injured his foot.
“In a game in 2010, I tore a tendon in my foot. And now, all of this dancing, all of this on your toes, I’m reliving a problem that I thought I’d never have to live again,” he said in his video package. “I am having so much fun when it comes to the dancing part. But the part behind the scenes, it’s just been painful. It’s bothered me a lot.”
RELATED: See the Dancing with the Stars Season 28 Cast Photos
Lewis’s doctor told him that if he kept dancing with his injured foot, “It’s going to actually rupture.”
“His next words was: ‘You gotta let it go. You cannot do this.’ I gotta leave the competition,” a disappointed Lewis said. “This is probably one of the hardest decisions of my life. But right now, I gotta make sure that I don’t damage something enough to where I can’t walk.”
The Supremes’ Mary Wilson and pro dancer Brandon Armstrong were the first pair to be eliminated.
Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.
