It was all pointing to Nancy Grace’s ouster on “Dancing with the Stars” Tuesday. She had the lowest score for the week and the lowest combine scores for the six weeks; she sulked around the results show like Casey Anthony awaiting the inevitable.
But in the end it was the other person in the bottom two, David Arquette, who was eliminated. And the studio audience expressed its surprise by booing the outcome.
“This whole thing has been incredible. I’ve loved it,” the star of “Scream” said. “But this must be a mistake, because this is my show,” he added, mocking Max Chmerkovskiy’s notorious remark from last week.
More seriously, Arquette, 40, said, “I came here to get to know more about myself, face my fears, entertain people, have America have a chance to get to know me a little better and learn how to dance,” he said, also praising his partner Kym Johnson “for being patient with me.”
Arquette was hurt by being in the losing side of a three-couple group dance; otherwise he was tied for third place with 24 for his cha cha to the Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra.”
He may have also been hurt by going first in the night – by the time phone lines opened for votes at the end of Monday’s performance, his might have been lost. Two previous contestants this season were eliminated after performing first as well.
Arquette’s scores had been improving after a shaky start of two weeks of scoring 18 out of 30 from the judges; his highest score since then has been 25 out of 30. Overall, he averaged 22.3 out of 30 over seven weeks, compared to Grace’s 21.1.
Others of the Top 5 continuing n the season with Grace are frontrunner Ricki Lake, J.R. Martinez, Rob Kardashian and Hope Solo.