Chuck Liddell on “Dancing with the Stars” (VIDEO)

By Amanda Pendolino on September 22nd, 2009

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When the new cast of Dancing with the Stars was revealed about a month ago, people were especially buzzing about Ultimate Fighting Champion Chuck Liddell. On the show’s season premiere last night, Chuck was paired up with pretty redhead and former Rising Star Latin Champion Anna Trebunskaya. She tried to soften him up to prepare him for their first dance, a classy foxtrot. ”My number one goal for Chuck for this foxtrot is to make sure that he smiles,” she said, “because if he doesn’t, he’s going to scare everybody.”

Chuck did have a bit of trouble on the dancefloor, looking quite stiff in his suit and forgetting to smile often. I don’t know if he scared anybody, but he certainly looked pretty scared himself. He also had some trouble with the footwork, and fumbled a bit when he had to use a hat as a prop. Despite an enthusiastic audience who gave him a standing ovation (did they watch the same dude that I did?), Bruno mostly tore him apart. “I have to say that the gentle neanderthal and the Russian princess went very well with the audience,” he said. “Nevertheless, the foxtrot was very, very rough.”

Carrie Ann threw Chuck a bone: “True, you’re not graceful yet, but you’re smooth,” she said. I do admit I kind of want to see if the hulky dude can get any more graceful.