Ryan Lochte will live to foxtrot another day.
The disgraced Olympian was nearly eliminated in Tuesday’s live “Dancing With the Stars” results show, but after ending up in the bottom two, Lochte and his pro partner Cheryl Burke were saved when “The Fosters” actor Jake T. Austin became the first celebrity sent home in Season 23.
The first half of the padded-out two-hour results show on ABC was spent reviewing the stars’ first two dance routines. On the premiere, Burke and Lochte did a foxtrot to the Michael Bublé song “Call Me Irresponsible” (hey, at least the guy’s got a sense of humor) and earned 24 out of 40 points — but their performance (and the rest of the show) was upstaged when two men stormed the stage to protest Lochte’s participation.
In Week 2, whose theme was “TV night,” it was a quickstep to “The Muppet Show” theme song, complete with Lochte dressed in Kermit-the-Frog green. The judges critiqued the swimmer’s lack of posture, however, again awarding the pair a score of 24 points.
When it finally got down to the eliminations, Lochte and Burke found themselves in jeopardy alongside Austin and Jenna Johnson; “The Brady Bunch” actress Maureen McCormick and Artem Chigvintsev; and VH1 host Amber Rose and Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Thankfully, no one protested when Austin was given the boot.