Singer Belinda Carlisle apparently has no qualms with her early exit from Dancing with the Stars eighth season.
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"My spirit isn't crushed. I'm fine. Totally fine," said Carlisle during a Tuesday night Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance that followed her Dancing with the Stars elimination with professional partner Jonathan Roberts. "I'm not sad."
Carlisle and Roberts were ousted after competing in a special "Dance Off" with Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak and his partner Karina Smirnoff since both had finished as the bottom two couples based on a combination of the judges' scores from last Monday night's performance episode, this Monday night's performance episode and home viewer votes cast following both broadcasts.
The judges' scores were then thrown out and the two couples were given a chance to perform one of their previous routines a second time, after which the judges' scoring of the new routine was combined with the prior home viewer votes to determine which couple would be going home.
Carlisle and Roberts opted to re-perform their salsa routine for the "Dance Off" and the judges gave the encore performance 17 out of 30 points -- the same score Wozniak and Smirnoff received for the quick-step they re-performed during the "Dance Off."
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"I don't think I was the worst person on the show. But I totally freaked out tonight during my routine," Carlisle told Kimmel about her "Dance Off" performance. "I completely forgot what I was supposed to do."
In addition, Carlisle said competing on Dancing with the Stars is "a lot of pressure" and added she doesn't "function so good under that kind of pressure."
"I don't think I did that great to be perfectly honest," she said. "I just think some people can handle that kind of pressure -- I have a newfound respect for people who can and that dance well because it's really hard."
Carlisle said she learned about her Dancing with the Stars participation while preparing for a trip to India.
"My manager said, 'Guess what! You're going to be on Dancing with the Stars!' I went, 'I don't know. I have to process this,'" she explained. "They didn't give me much time to think about it because I think that's their strategy. I love the show, I love watching it. So I said okay."
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However things didn't go so well for Carlisle and Roberts, who became the first couple booted from the show's eighth season. Carlisle said she thinks Roberts was "really disappointed" with her performance.
"I love my partner, I wish I could have done better for him," she told Kimmel. "But I did the best I could."
As for Carlisle's pick to take home the eighth-season's mirror ball trophy, she said it's probably between Sex and the City actor Gilles Marini and his partner Cheryl Burke or jilted The Bachelor bachelorette Melissa Rycroft and her partner Tony Dovolani.
"I would say either Gilles or possibly that girl from The Bachelor. What's her name? Melissa?" Carlisle asked Kimmel. "She's a really good dancer... It's pretty obvious with her."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio