Melissa Rycroft has bounced back from The Bachelor fiasco.
Perhaps head judge Len Goodman summed it up best, telling Rycroft, “The Bachelor’s loss is Dancing with the Stars’ gain.”
If Rycroft had any hesitation to take a second shot at appearing on reality TV, it was erased the minute she stepped foot onto the stage Monday night.
“She was radiant. She owned the place,” judge
Bruno Tonioli gushed to People after the live show. “She embraced the whole feeling of the show.”
The Dallas beauty, whose engagement to The Bachelor’s Jason Mesnick ended prematurely on television just a week earlier, was embraced by the supportive crowd as she and partner Tony Dovolani took her mark during the commercial break before she performed.
After she and Dovolani danced an elegant Viennese waltz, the crowd leapt to their feet. Rycroft has had a tough time lately and the audience's embrace was much deserved, especially considering she only had two days to rehearse while her other fellow competitors had four weeks.
With 48 hours of practice, Rycroft managed to earn one of the highest scores of the night: a 23 out of 30.
The warm response brought tears of joy to Rycroft’s eyes, and made the judges gush.
“You’re just a beautiful dancer,” an awestruck Carrie Ann Inaba said.
http://www.hollywood.com/news/Rycroft_Dazzles_on_DWTS/5409798
