In with ease: Emmitt reaches semis
11/01/06 11:28 PM
By ED BARK
Eight down, three couples to go, including Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke. They breezed to Dancing with the Stars' semi-finals Wednesday night, getting the word early in another ultra-padded results show.
Emmitt pronounced himself "extremely excited" to be on the precipice of going to Dancing's Super Bowl.
"It's nerve-wracking" waiting for the weekly verdicts, he said. "Performing is nothing. The results show is the toughest moment."
Eventually counted out was High School Musical co-star Monique Coleman, making it an all-male semi-final of Emmitt, Mario Lopez and Joey Lawrence. Jerry Jones, you need to be there -- in a special owner's box if that's what it takes.
Cheryl, on the winning team last season with Drew Lachey, said she'll keep her second partner loosey-goosey.
"For Emmitt, we have to keep having fun," she said. "Or else he has no chance of making it to the finals."
Their two Tuesday night dances received mixed reviews from Dancing's three judges. A fox trot got a modest 25 out of 30 points, but a smoother rumba nailed a 29. It's really all about viewers' votes, though, and Emmitt may well have a big enough fan base to survive just about anything but a rock-bottom judges' score. As predicted earlier, he's going to win this thing, in a final showdown with the Gumby-like Lopez.
"When you watch Emmitt Smith dance, the word that comes into my head is funky," said judge Len Goodman, the show's otherwise finicky elder statesman. "He is a true, cool dude."
Wow, next thing you know, Merv Griffin will be calling him a crazy cat. It goes with this new territory, Emmitt. But now there are just two more shows to go before you bring Dancing's oddly crafted silver trophy back home to Dallas for a ticker tape parade. Let's not announce a route ahead of time, though. That's been known to jinx things.