"Dancing With the Stars" said goodbye to Bill Nye The Science Guy on Monday night in week three of the popular dance competition TV series.
A fan favorite, Nye had injured himself during last week's performance, taking a fall during a dance routine that led to his tearing "80 percent of his quadriceps," Nye's professional dance partner, Tyne Stecklein, told co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet,
USA Today reported.
Editor's Note: ObamaCare Is Here. Are You Prepared?
Despite the fall and subsequent injury,
Nye managed to make the cut last week and survive for another round.
Stecklein added that prior to Monday's performance, Nye was seen "getting medical treatment" backstage sitting on a gurney with a nurse by his side, USA Today reported.
In his last dance Monday, Nye performed to a sci-fi themed routine dressed as a robot, thereby allowing him to legitimately limit his movements in the dance to stiff, robot-like motions.
Despite having been widely celebrated by the studio audience, which began to chant his name following the performance, the judges were apparently not as impressed, giving him an overall score of 16 out of a possible 30 points, and setting him on the path to be dismissed from the show.
Show host Tom Bergeron subsequently asked the clearly disappointed Nye why he would continue despite the warning from his doctor.
"When the doctor said, 'short of being in a wheelchair, I wouldn't dance,' why did you start thinking of leg mobilizers and ways to continue?" asked Bergeron.
"Well you want to stay in it," Nye replied. "The other thing, although I am not an orthopedic doctor, I can see what was going on. … Get hold of the tendon and if you mobilize it, it would be possible."
Following his dismissal from the show, Nye took to Twitter to thank his fans for their continued support.
Editor's Note: Do You Support Obamacare? Vote in Urgent National Poll
The remaining 10 contestants on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" are Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Valerie Harper, Leah Remini, Christina Milian, Elizabeth Berkley, Amber Riley, Bill Engvall, Jack Osbourne, Corbin Bleu, and Brant Daugherty.