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Melissa Rycroft and Holly Madison Join Dancing With the Stars

by Tina Kells | March 9, 2009 at 12:56 pm

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Dancing With the Stars (DWTS for short) premiers tonight with two last minute replacement reality TV "stars" seeking a dancing queen title.

Bachelor dumpee Melissa Rycroft and Hugh Hefner's ex Holly Madison will replace real stars Nancy O'Dell (Access Hollywood) and Jewel (singer/songwriter) in the 2009 season premier.

O'Dell backed out of her scheduled spin on the DWTS stage because of an injury and is replaced by former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Melissa Rycroft.

Songstress Jewel decided not to compete for undisclosed reasons and will be replaced by Holly Madison of the Hugh Hefner centered reality series The Girls Next Door.

The emergence of Melissa's "star" quality extends all the way back to last week, when she "won" The Bachelor only to get dumped minutes later on After The Final Rose by single father/highly functioning chimpanzee Jason Mesnick. (When asked to comment on Melissa's new fame game, Jason told Extra, "I am so excited for Melissa. I know she has danced her whole life." That is categorically not what any DWTS viewer wants to hear, not that anybody wanted to hear from Jason anyway.)
Whether or not you consider Melissa Rycroft a star, this is a brilliant move by ABC. Last week's Bachelor finale scored the network its highest ratings in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic in over two and a half years. The average age of a Dancing With the Stars viewer skews over 50.

At this point, I'm somewhat regretting my decision to abandon The Bachelor around the time Tooth Nazi performed her original rap, but I have complete faith that ABC will bestow us with cleverly edited clips of Melissa's time on one reality show in a way that demands that we take pity on/vote for her in another. Will Melissa get you to tune in for Dancing With the Stars? And will she wear sequins or fringe tonight? The heart, it flutters.

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Fred Miller

at 08:45 on March 10th, 2009

Dallas, Texas pride is showing up in the Dallas Morning News headlines that claims the night belonged to Melissa :

Her jilting on last week's The Bachelor finale has been the source of endless analysis and exclamation on talk shows and in the blogosphere. The timing, as ABC cross-marketing programmers seem to have noticed, is perfect. And as she appears to have the skills to match her booming support, Dallas' homegirl is poised to be a contender.