"DWTS": Pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy on His Speedy Recovery

Dancing with the Stars ballroom bad boy Maksim Chmerkovskiy returned to the ABC show Monday night, albeit still in a sidelined capacity. After tearing his calf muscle during rehearsals for last week’s energetic jive, Chmerkovskiy flew to Cleveland, Ohio, to undergo surgery, leaving celebrity partner Heather Morris (pictured above with Chmerkovskiy) to continue her journey in the capable hands of DWTS pro Alan Bersten. But just because Chmerkovskiy is out for the moment doesn’t mean he’s entirely down for the count; he supervised his partner’s tango for this week’s show via Skype. With the surgery behind him, the DWTS champ was back in the studio Monday night and hopes to be dancing as soon as possible. (MediaVillage.com’s behind-the-scenes coverage of Dancing with the Stars Season 24 continues below.)