Dancing With The Stars contestant savaged by judges over failed lift

Disaster struck for one contestant on Sunday’s episode of Dancing With The Stars - and he ended up with a truly dismal score from the judges.

Disaster struck for one contestant on Sunday’s episode of Dancing With The Stars, with Better Homes and Gardens landscaper Charlie Albone copping a hiding from the judges after a lift went wrong.

Albone and dance partner Ruby Gherbaz were coming to the end of his first performance of the season, the jive, when they went for a daring ‘lift’ move in which he was meant to grab her under the arms and lift her soaring into the air.

Not how the lift was meant to go.

But instead, their performance ended on a sour note as they failed to properly execute the lift, Albone instead awkwardly swinging his dance partner around in the air before setting her back down again.

A sheepish Albone knew he’d messed up – but still, the judges’ feedback was particularly brutal.

The always florid Craig Revel Horwood went first, declaring that he thought “the ground opened up and swallowed that dance whole.”

“I mean, you had feet like shovels, hands like spades, it was flat-footed, it was sloppy, darling. Off time … in fact the best part, I’m afraid, was the end,” he said, to boos from the audience.

“Savage,” was Albone’s response.

“Savage.”

Fellow judge Sharna Burgess tried to look at the positives, telling Albone that there was “some good stuff” in his dance as well as “things that went wrong.”

Todd McKenney got in a few quips at Albone’s expense, telling him that Australians “love it when people like you give it a crack … we love a battler. It’s just a shame it’s a dancing competition.”

And fourth judge Mark Wilson gave Albone an opportunity for redemption, asking him to try and repeat the lift – which he did, this time doing it perfectly.

Still, the judges weren’t scoring the do-over, and Albone’s first outing for the season ended up with a brutal score of just eight out of a possible 40 points from the judges – including a dire score of just one point from Revel Horwood.

Ouch.

The final leaderboard for the night:

Virginia Gay and Ian Waite – 32

Christie Whelan Browne and Craig Monley – 30

Phil Burton and Ash-Leigh Hunter – 29

Sally Pearson and Mitch Kirkby – 27

Pia Miranda and Declan Taylor – 23

Laura Byrne and Danil Saveliev – 19

Charlie Albone and Ruby Gherbaz – 8