'The Real' co-host is a maneater for one night only!
Jeannie Mai is a maneater -- for one night only! The Real co-host slipped into character as Hannibal Lecter on Monday night's episode of Dancing With the Stars.
Jeannie and her partner, Brandon Armstrong, took it to the next level for Villains Night, performing a Paso Doble to "Maneater" by Nelly Furtado.
As Jeannie explained before the dance, used to be terrified of Hannibal Lecter after sneaking into the theater to watch Silence of the Lambs. "I couldn't stop having nightmares about it for years," she confessed. "I turned vegetarian for about two years."
The pair earned praise for their dance from judges Bruno Tonioli, Derek Hough and Carrie Ann Inaba. "You are a maneater and you absolutely ate up that Paso!" Derek said. "Jeannie, that was a great, great Paso. Well done!"
"You little cannibal. You made a meal out of that!" Bruno added. "You are irresistible to watch."
Carrie Ann called the performance an "explosive" way to start the show. "Great attack, really powerful," she marveled.
Jeannie and Brandon received a score of 25/30.
Rooting Jeannie on every week (even if she jokes she's rooting against her) is her Mamma Mai -- who recently crashed ET's interview to give her daughter advice on how to win the dancing competition.
"OK, last week you guys got 8, 8, 8. High score, really good. I'm so proud of you and I'm so surprised," she told Jeannie and Brandon, asking, "Do you think you can maintain that and go up a 9, 9, 9, or 10, 10, 10?"
"Listen, first of all, I'm trying my best," Jeannie replied. "I am not a dancer, remember that. I've never taken dance lessons, I've never performed in front of people at this scale so I'm going to do my best, but I'm with you. I don't want to go backwards in numbers. I don't want to go down in 8s. It's more competitive, we have to stay on. We don't want to be in the bottom two, so I'm going to try my best, Mom."
Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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