Misty May Traenor Will Be Missed on "Dancing with the Stars"

Misty May Treanor, a judge and fan favorite on ABC's hit show "Dancing with the Stars," is out for the season. During rehearsal last Friday, as she and her partner Max practiced their lively jive, everyone heard a big pop. The assumption was that Misty had bumped into something; however, once she attempted to stand on her foot, it became quite clear that it was something else altogether.

As it turns out, Misty snapped her Achilles tendon, an injury for which she underwent surgery on Tuesday, October 7, 2008. Although she is out of "Dancing with the Stars," the gold medal winner for volleyball assured everyone that it would not interfere with her sports career. She had planned to take time off in early 2009 to spend time her family. Therefore, if the injury had to happen, the timing could not have been better.

While her fans will miss her on the show, Misty promised to come back as soon as she could to hang around the red room with her new found friends. She plans to be a member of their cheering section. She also hopes to return at some time in the future to do the jive for which she and Maxim had worked so hard.

With Misty gone, "Dancing with the Stars" producers decided not to eliminate a couple the night of October 7^th. However, the couple with the lowest number of votes - - Rocco DiSpirito and his partner Karina Smirnoff - - was made aware that they would have been going home had the accident not happened. That ramped up the pressure for the couple to do much better next week in order to remain in contention.

Misty wasn't the only one to injure herself this week. Susan Lucci also twisted an ankle while practicing her jive. It was a bit apparent as the actress moved more gingerly in the dance than the judges might have liked. Nonetheless, she managed to do just enough to remain in the competition.

Here is how things fell out this week.

Susan and Tony were up first, doing a jive to "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" It was cute but lacked the energy it should have had because of Susan's injury.