Maria Menounos and Derek Hough took a risk last night on Dancing with the Stars when they chose a Bollywood theme for their Samba trio dance.
The celebrity contestant and her pro partner teamed up with Henry Byalikov for a first ever three-person routine that two of the judges thought was brilliantly choreographed.
The lone dissenter was head judge Len Goodman who seemed unusually cranky Monday night and particularly hard on Maria and Derek.
Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli each scored the routine a 9. Len was booed by the audience and his fellow judges when he flashed a 7 … which happened to be the lowest score given all night.
Len lamented, “Well, look … if I was judging a Bollywood number this is a 10. But no, I was judging a Samba and there was no connection for me with a Samba.”
During their first dance, a Viennese Waltz, he held up an 8 as the other two judges waves their 10 paddles.
This level of disparity is not the norm and we can’t help but wonder if Goodman was trying to level the playing field by manipulating the score of two of the strongest competitors.
The combined scores gave Menounos and Hough a 53 on the night, putting them in second-to-last place among the six remaining pairs. Only Melissa Gilbert and her pro partner Maks scored lower with 51.
Something was clearly agitating Goodman and perhaps we’ll get some clarity on that tonight during a double elimination.
Check it both dances below:
Photo: Video Screen Grab