DWTS Watch: Cloris Leachman Wows on Opening Night!

On the season premiere of Dancing With the Stars, it might have been Brooke Burke who got the top score, but it was 82-year-old Cloris Leachman who truly stole the show when she threw her leg up on the judges’ table after her foxtrot!

And when OK! spoke to Cloris backstage after the show, she said her memorable post-dance interaction with the DWTS judges, was not planned. “I forgot four steps and I got a little hysterical after that,” she explained, adding, “I was inspired.”

“When the audience erupted for her, it was hard for us to hear the music," Her partner Corky Ballas said. "We got distracted by that.”

And whether or not she makes it through for another week, Cloris is delighted to be on DWTS at all. “I was turned down twice because I was too old," She revealed to OK!. "Then we had a big meeting and I had to pass six doctors’ tests. And I have to have my blood pressure taken before we can even rehearse.”

When asked if she’s hoping to get a boyfriend out of the show, Cloris admitted, “I started to think about it. I kept asking Corky why he’s not attracted to me. He won’t tell.”

Turning to her dance partner, she asked, “Am I too old for you? Or am I not your type?”

Without missing a beat, Corky played straight man, telling her, “It’s a mystery!”

Backstage, Cloris’ competitors on the seventh season of the hit ABC reality show were marveling at her wacky “performance.”

Retired football tough guy Warren Sapp, who dazzled the judges with his entertaining cha cha cha, laughed to OK! “Cloris was the life of the party! And I thought I was a live wire.” The legendary linebacker says he expects viewers to keep the former Mary Tyler Moore star on the show: “Cloris isn’t going anywhere for a long time.”

Meanwhile, Ted McGinley told OK! he wasn’t surprised at Cloris’ behavior, having worked with her before on The Love Boat. “We traveled together on a cruise together,” the actor recalled. “I spent about a month with her and she’s just like that all the time. She and I were sitting down at dinner one night and she grabbed a plateful of spaghetti and said, ‘This is pretty good. I’m not sure if it’s done or not.’ And she took the spaghetti and threw it up on the ceiling of the ship and she said, ‘if it stays, it’s done.’ And of course it dropped down right on top of me. She’s so much fun. We should all be that fortunate at that age to have all that energy.”

DWTS pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who has returned to the hit show after taking last season off and is now teamed up with Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Misty May-Treanor, felt Cloris had created a classic DWTS moment. “I would be upset if I missed it," he told OK!. "It was pretty legendary.”

The season's first dancing injury went to comedian Jeffrey Ross, who got the lowest score of the evening after he hurt his eye during rehearsal. Wearing a rhinestone-encrusted eye patch backstage,  he told OK!, “It hurts. It’s a little red and I have a slit cornea. I was advised not to dance but I couldn’t sit still for two hours while everybody had fun. I had a freak accident but the show must go on.”

Even after decades of being on TV, soap legend Susan Lucci told OK! her first dance of the season was a “very frightening” experience. As for judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s comment that Susan looked too frail, the actress responded, “I’ve been doing Pilates for 14 years. All of the dancers here have said to me, 'you have a dancer’s body.'”

Susan, who became a grandma again when her daughter Liza Huber gave birth to a boy on Aug. 16, said her famed All My Children character Erica Kane “would get out there and cha cha to beat the band!”

Dancer Derek Hough, who guided Brooke Burke to the highest score with their 23 for the cha cha cha, told OK! his romance with his partner from last season, actress Shannon Elizabeth, is still going strong. Shannon cheered him and Brooke on from the audience Monday night. “It’s still kicking,” Derek smiled about his relationship with Shannon. “I’ve been sick and she’s been taking care of me. She doesn’t cook and she’s a vegetarian—but she’s been cooking me chicken noodle soup! It’s love.”

And last but not least, Kim Kardashian said her football player boyfriend Reggie Bush would be watching her performance on Tivo. “I wish her could have been here but I understand. He’s in the middle of football season,” She told OK! “I’m anxious to see what he thought.”

By Carole Glines