Cheryl Burke suffered an injury while rehearsing for Dancing With the Stars. Whether or not the two-time mirror ball champion will compete in tonight’s show remains to be seen.
Cheryl Burke and Her Dancing With the Stars Future
Burke’s celebrity partner, Backstreet Boys band member A.J. McClean, tells People how it happened. “Cheryl and I were practicing during stage rehearsal and it did not go well,” McLean said. “It happened so fast, I just heard her head hit the floor.”
While the pair were rehearsing, Burke fell backward and struck her head. McClean checked on Burke and also a medic examined Burke. She was advised to take the rest of the day off.
Viewers will have to tune in tonight to see if Burke dances with McClean or if another pro, one likely already eliminated from this season, will step in for her.
Injuries are as much a part of Dancing With the Stars as glitter and spray tans. Here are just some of the bumps, bruises (and sometimes worse things) that have happened to celebrities and their pro partners.
During Season 24, Maks Chmerkovskiy took a week off due to a calf injury. His partner that season, Heather Morris, went on with a replacement pro. (Though can Maks really be replaced? We say no!)
Nobody puts Baby in the corner and a ruptured disc didn’t keep Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) from competing in the Season 12 finale with Derek Hough. They won the mirror ball trophy, but Grey later underwent surgery to remove a fragment.
Stars learn new steps, but one Ty Murray forget to learn was when to duck! The country singer suffered a black eye after his pro partner Chelsie Hightower’s microphone pack accidentally clocked him in the face in Season 8. (Ouch.)
In Season 23, Sharna Burgess suffered an injury to her knee. So, Jenna Johnson, who’d already been eliminated stepped up and subbed for Sharna, dancing with her celeb partner, race car driver James Hinchliffe.
Ginger Zee’s pelvis was injured shortly before the 22nd season finale of Dancing with the Stars; she powered through and completed her routines with pro partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy. Just before the Season 18 finale, Mark Ballas injured his shoulder, but, like Zee would later do, Ballas powered through and danced with his partner Candace Cameron-Bure.
Sometimes an injury can be so severe, or potentially severe that a star drops out. That’s what happened with figure skater Dorothy Hamill left the competition in Season 16. “I have an injury that could be irreparable and nerve damage, and it would be completely unfair for me to stay in this and have any of these people go home,” Hamill said.
Hough, now a judge on DWTS, has multiple mirror ball trophies, but he didn’t get there alone. After injuring his back in Season 17, his buddy Ballas stepped in to dance with Amber Riley (Glee). Hough and Riley ended up winning one of his six mirror ball trophies that season.
She didn’t sing out of tune, but what did Wonder Years star Danica McKellar do after breaking a rib? She powered through and continued on in the competition with pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy.
The force was with him, but so was chronic back pain. Therefore, Billy Dee Williams, star of The Empire Strikes Back, dropped out of Season 18 in its third week. Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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