8:33AM EDT October 23. 2012 - Because of the third presidential debate, Dancing With the Stars divided the usual Monday two-hour performance show into two nights.

Monday night's episode featured four couples dancing to their favorite "guilty pleasure" songs, while the other four couples performed a freestyle team dance in the ballroom for judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.

But the big question was: How is Melissa Rycroft?

The reality TV star, 29, was rushed to the hospital on Sunday after falling and hurting her head and neck during rehearsals. The show replayed the accident, showing Rycroft rubbing her neck and being taken away on a stretcher in an ambulance with sirens blaring. "The sneaker kinda got stuck and her neck cracked," partner Tony Dovolani said in a taped segment.

She appeared to be just fine on the show. "It was a herniated disc in my upper neck," she explained to host Tom Bergeron, and added that she was "officially cleared to dance."

Here's how the show unfolded:

Gilles Marini explained why Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You is his guilty-pleasure pick. The song came out when he was 15 years old and that was "the first time I had a great time with ladies." Oooo. So he wanted his rumba to be "clean, beautiful and breathtaking." Fans started applauding the sexiness of it after only a few steps. Bruno: "That was not a dance; that was master class theater." He added, "one of the best performances I've seen." Carrie Ann got so excited she fell right off her chair. Gilles helped her up and gave her a hug, but she was laughing the whole time. "I'm OK!" Len called it a "blockbuster" and quibbled about partner Peta Murgatroyd lifting her leg up a lot. "Up it went!" Scores: 10, 9.5, 10 = 29.5.

Emmitt Smith wore bright red and chose Copacabana to showcase his party attitude with a samba with pro partner Cheryl Burke. The audience was up and clapping from the start of the number. "Well done!" said Len. Bruno said, "The samba is actually very difficult. You made it look easy." Carrie Ann said he has the "samba swagger!" Brooke Burke-Charvet teased him about listening to Barry Manilow in the locker room when he was in the NFL. Scores: 9.5, 9.5, 10 = 29.

Kirstie Alley picked Mrs. Robinson, "and I'm the boy toy," said her partner Maks Chmerkovskiy. She was shown crying during Sunday's rehearsal when she still hadn't mastered her quickstep. On the dance floor, they seemed to pull it off just fine. Carrie Anne said it was her best dance ever, "excellent" except for one little "boo boo." Len also thought it was her "best dance." Bruno said she "delivered it ... looked great... well done." Scores: 8.5, 8.5, 8.5 = 25.5.

Kelly Monaco had to juggle her soap opera schedule with learning two dances this week, so we saw her struggling with partner Val Chmerkovskiy during the week. By struggling, we mean she was gloomy and sweaty and couldn't learn the steps. "The choreography's getting lost in my small little brain," she told Val, after telling him the best thing he could do for her would be to "wait for me in my dressing room." Wink, wink. But on the floor, she and Val danced a sassy samba to Cher Lloyd's pop hit Want U Back. Len Goodman said there were "elements" he really liked, but it was a "tad on the raunchy side." Bruno quibbled a bit about her samba "bounce." Carrie Ann felt she was "uncertain," adding that it wasn't Kelly's best. Scores: 8, 8, 8.5 = 24.5.

Derek Hough's team, which included his partner Shawn Johnson, Sabrina Bryan and Louis Van Amstel, Apolo Anton Ohno and Karina Smirnoff, along with Rycroft and Dovolani, danced a vigorous freestyle to Call Me Maybe as football players and cheerleaders. Their routine included all sorts of acrobatics and head-flipping, and Rycroft did it all. After the dance, Brooke asked her how her neck was and she said, "It's really numb right now." But she smiled through it. Their scores: 9.5, 10, 10 = 29.5. Each team member will add 29.5 to their individual score on Tuesday night.