Come Dancing

Broadway veterans Lance Bass, Toni Braxton, Cloris Leachman, and Susan Lucci all made it through the grueling first week of ABC-TV’s reality show competition Dancing with the Stars, which began on Monday, September 22.

“I’m sitting there talking to [judge] Carrie-Ann Inaba and I’m like ‘Am I really about to do this?’ Like right now? So, my head was completely spinning,” Bass said before doing his fox trot on Tuesday night.

Braxton, who suffers from a heart ailment, has a cardiologist standing by at each performance. Nonetheless, she’s relishing this opportunity. “You don’t have to be a victim. You can survive and you can live,” she says. “My cardiologist, Dr. Shapiro, said to me: ‘You know, I think you should do this. It would be great for you. You’re too young. You need to get out and enjoy life.'”

The 82-year-old Leachman entered the competition battling bunions, a bad knee, osteoporosis, and arthritis; she takes regular 20 minute naps every few hours and has her blood-pressure checked before and after each rehearsal. But it’s her mouth that’s giving her the most trouble, as viewers may have noticed from the various bleeped words. “I used to not say anything, even ‘shut up!’ I would have to say ‘please be quiet,” says the Oscar-winning actress. “And then something happened to me. I don’t know what it was, but it’s fun to kind of cuss once in awhile. Hell, Damn — say them words!”

Lucci, best known as All My Children‘s Erica Kane, failed to impress the judges with her cha-cha on Monday night, but made it through without being eliminated. “I was very nervous,” she said. “I unfortunately let my nerves get the best of me.”

Comedian Jeffrey Ross and actor Ted McGinley did not survive the week. The remaining celebrity contestants include Misty May-Treanor, Maurice Greene, Kim Kardashian, Cody Linley, Brooke Burke, Rocco DiSpirito, and Warren Sapp.