Having already lasted longer than most lowest-averaging dancers have in the past Chaz Bono was eliminated from “Dancing with the Stars” Tuesday.
The show’s first transgender contestant had consistently had the lowest score of the week for three of the show’s six weeks, including Monday when a dance from “Phantom of the Opera” for Broadway week earned a 19 out of 30 – 10 points from the near perfect scores of two frontrunners, J.R. Martinez and Ricki Lake.
But he said earlier in the show his low scores may have been the result of gender.
“If you’re an overweight woman in this competition, losing weight, they love you. If you’re an overweight guy trying to do this competition, getting in shape, they penalize you,” he said in earlier com, “Like I’m some fat troll dancing with this beautiful woman every night. I’m sick of it. So now I’m going to get sugar balance diet and stay in shape just to teach them a lesson”
He complained particularly of the comments of Bruno Tonioli who on Monday said, “On Monday, judge Bruno Tonioli It was like watching a cutesy little penguin trying to be a big menacing man of prey.”
In the end, he was grateful being on the show. “It really pushed me and showed me I could do so much more than I ever thought I could,” Bono said after the ouster.
And his mission was fulfilled.
“I came on this show because I wanted to show America a different kind of man. I know that if there was someone like me on TV when I was growing up, my whole life would have been different. So I dedicate everything I did to all the people out there like me and especially kids and teens who are struggling. You can have a wonderful, great life and be successful and happy.”
His stint on the show included one week when his famous mother Cher sat in the stands to watch him and his partner Lacey Schwimmer.
The last dancer standing with him at the end was Hope Solo, whose partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy got into a shouting match with judge Len Goodman Monday.
The other dancers remaining on the show are JNancy Grace, David Arquette and Rob Kardashian.