"Personal story" night always yields some heartfelt moments on 'Dancing With the Stars' and last night's installment of that theme was no exception as several stars cut open some veins, revealing stories of deep personal loss. They then incorporated those stories into their dances.

The decisions that the stars and dancers made yielded some interesting results: Hines Ward and Petra Nemcova tied for first place, taking the top position from previous front-runner Ralph Macchio.

But the most dramatic moment of last night's performance was when Maksim Chmerkovskiy suffered a spasm in his thigh, which sent him and partner Kirstie Alley to the dance floor, shortly after they began their dance.

The Ukrainian-born ballroom bad boy and comedic actress extraordinaire quickly composed themselves, however, and resumed their rumba to 'Over the Rainbow,' earning applause from the audience and classy comments from the judges, who praised them for their inspiring comeback.

After the show, the stars and their pro dance partners reflected on the highs and lows of the evening. TV Squad was on the scene to get the scoop.

We would like to go on the record as saying we are proud of Hines Ward, too. His Samba with professional partner Kym Johnson on 'Dancing With the Stars' (Mon., 8PM ET on ABC) was easily his best performance of the competition so far. And we're not the only ones who think so.

The judges gave Ward and Johnson a total of 25 points, tying them with Petra Nemcova and Dmitry Chaplin for the highest marks of the night. And, more importantly, they were proud of him.

"Mama, you must be so proud of him," Carrie Ann Inaba said to his mother, sitting nearby. "Hines, you were dancing the Samba like you've been dancing the Samba your whole life."

He may have the best smile, but Mike Catherwood is also the least-known star on season 12 of 'Dancing With the Stars', and his combined score of 30 after two weeks of dancing is the lowest. Can the Los Angeles disc jockey and his partner Lacey Schwimmer evade tonight's elimination on 'DWTS'?

"I have the lowest fan base and lowest score," Catherwood told TV Squad on the post-show press line last night. "If anything keeps us on the show beyond this week we'll have to do things differently. It can't be just, 'Oh, I'll try harder.' We'll have to go back to the drawing board and break it down."

If Catherwood manages to avoid being sent home during tonight's elimination show he'll have Schwimmer to thank. She brings her own fan following, not just from 'DWTS,' but also from 'So You Think You Can Dance' on which she appeared from 2007–08.

Ralph Macchio, 49, and Kirstie Alley, 60, are two of the older contestants on season 12 of 'Dancing With the Stars,' but after the first night of dancing they took early leads with top scores of, respectively, 24 and 23.

The star of 'The Karate Kid' and his pro partner, Karina Smirnoff, performed a Foxtrot that judge Len Goodman called the best one of the night.

Macchio's an actor; did that play a role in how successfully he embraced his part on the dance floor?

"Yes. Dancing is like acting only you use your body," said Smirnoff. "It allows him tap into the character so much better."

"[Acting] is less painful," joked Macchio. "Less painful."

The first night jitters are officially out of the way. Twelve stars and their celebrity pro partners took to the dance floor and performed either a Cha-Cha or a Viennese Waltz on the 'Dancing With the Stars' season 11 opening night show. Actress Jennifer Grey, singer Brandy Norwood and athletes Rick Fox and Kurt Warner performed well -- as expected -- but the surprise of the night was teen actor Kyle Massey, who brought to mind a young Warren Sapp (Kym Johnson's season 7 partner) when he performed a dynamite dance with Lacey Schwimmer.

TV Squad was on the post-show press line to get reactions from all 24 participants. For one unlucky couple, alas, it's their second-to-last interview, because tonight one duo is going home.

David Hasselhoff doesn't think he has much of a chance of winning the upcoming season of 'Dancing With the Stars.' But that's fine with him -- he figures that losing gives him more of a chance to sleep with Kym Johnson, his dance partner. "The Hoff" appeared on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' (weeknights, 12AM ET on ABC) to discuss the whole situation.

"[Kym's] really hot," Hoff said. (This is true: She is.) However, there's some bad news. " ... [Kym] told me that she doesn't date any of her dancer partners till either we're eliminated or we win," he continued. "So I said, 'We're going out in the first round.'"

The remaining three 'Dancing with the Stars' contestants turned in their final performances on last night's episode, dancing their way through a three-round marathon competition, with each performing either a ballroom or Latin solo, a freestyle dance, and a mashup featuring samba, jive and the Viennese waltz.

Mya and partner Dmitry Chaplin emerged as leaders with a total score of 87, followed closely by Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson with 85 points. Kelly Osbourne and Louis van Amstel trailed in third place with a total of 76.

Watch clips and the full episode after the jump.

Has SNL done a Dancing with the Stars spoof yet? Is it always as crazy as last night's episode? I'm showing the clip below (click here if you want to skip all that dancing) because it not only has Donny Osmond about to make out with judge Bruno but it also has one of the great TV quotes of the year (concerning Utah), someone mentioning Donny should have used more tongue, the phrases "airy fairy" and "turn to the dark side," and random clapping from stars from Modern Family (I know, I'm sure many ABC stars show up for some cross-promotion).

Good thing that Paula Abdul was there to bring an air of normalcy and logic to the whole evening.

Dancing With the Stars is a show that makes no sense to me. I understand the appeal of it; I'm usually very interested in any program that involves celebrities doing ridiculous things on national television and I know that people love bright shiny costumes, but it still somehow manages to hold no interest for me whatsoever.

With that said, I know that the announcement of each season's DWTS cast is heavily anticipated and rumored for months before the actual announcement. We heard that Dan Marino may be a contestant; a claim that was soon denied. 82-year-old Cloris Leachman was another name floated, as was Magnum, P.I. himself, Tom Selleck. Kim Kardashian and Kathy Griffin were also said to have been approached.

As with most rumors, some of these turned out to be false, but others had some truth to them. Follow me after the jump for the official (and completely insane) cast of Dancing With the Stars' seventh season, along with some twists the producers have cooked up for this go-around.

With only a few days until the premiere of Dancing With The Stars, it's time to start picking favorites. Brett already gave you his analysis of the ladies, and now it's the men's turn to be evaluated. This season we have an athlete, a comedian, a recording artist, a magician, a Latin heartthrob, and an 80's film star--a little something for everybody. So, who's a front runner and who has an uphill climb ahead of them? Read on to find out!

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(S04E19) After ten weeks, nineteen episodes, and an uncountable number of teases about results coming after the break, it all came down to tonight. As we have come to expect from the finale, ABC pulled out all the stops, bringing back all of the contestants, the pros, and the past champions. Also expected, they allotted an hour more airtime than they really needed, which led to a night that was heavy with pre-taped packages.

(S04E18) As Tom said, "Ten weeks, and it all comes down to this." We could argue about the order of the eliminations, who should have stayed longer (Shandi), and who hung around way too long (Billy Ray). But I think in the end, the right teams made it to the finals. There has been a lot of dancing over the previous nine weeks, and after all of it, these are the three teams that stood out above the rest.

With only three teams left, and the big disco ball on the line, each team has three performances to do this week. One is held off for the results show, but tonight we got to see each of them in the Judge's Choice round, and the much anticipated Freestyle. Let's get to it.

(S04E16) We've reached the (thankfully) Cyrus-free semifinals, and it looks like tomorrow's elimination will be a nail-biter. There was absolutely no dead weight on the dance floor, a fact that made for an exciting evening of performances. There were perfect scores, pelvic thrusts, and the phrase "Yours is bigger." What's not to like?

Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough (Quickstep) - This week the contestants got to pick their favorite Ballroom and Latin dance styles. For the Ballroom round, Apolo and Julianne chose the Quickstep. Revealing his competitive spirit, Apolo set quite a few goals for himself. He wanted tens for his Ballroom round, and he wanted perfect scores for both dances.

(S04E15) I thought that Mandee made a great comment on the post for last week's results show. She said, "You know, the Results show has been morphing into a terrific '60s style variety show, with comedy segments, guest musical performers, and, of course, lots of dancing. A slice of retro-cool, for the whole family, from grandma to pre-tweens." I completely agree with that.

The results show has always had to fight the problem that they only have about two minutes of actual results for their 60 minute show. Right now, it's as good as it has ever been. It's always going to be behind the performance show, because the star's performances are what it's all about, but the producers deserve credit for how much work is going into the results show. Enough about that though, we have results to get to.

(S04E14) Which one of these doesn't belong? As is par for the course on Dancing With The Stars, somebody always gets through on the power of the fan vote, surpassing contestants that are superior dancers. This year, that somebody is Billy Ray Cyrus. We could argue all day about whether or not Billy Ray should still be on the show, but one thing is for sure, while he is here, he makes things interesting. Read on to hear about the latest dustup.