ABC News

ABC News’ Chris Connelly reports:

Will the sight of Cher in the audience of tonight’s “Dancing With the Stars” be enough to save her son, Chaz Bono, from elimination once again?

While the world awaits, and debates, the superstar’s appearance, her son’s competitors say Cher’s arrival is forcing them to bring their A-game to the dance floor.

“I’m excited,” Ricki Lake, who, with dancing partner Derek Hough, is leading the scoreboard so far, told ABC News.  “I hope I do a good performance for her.”

Bono, 42, and partner Lacey Schwimmer were rescued from the bottom two in last week’s episode after Cher Tweeted out a last-minute appeal for support.

“God hope Chaz hangs on till next week so I can come sit in the Audience & Watch,” the singer posted.

That promise of a diva-size appearance by Cher was enough to move the duo, who received the lowest of the scores from judges, ahead into Week 4, and send reality-TV star Kristin Cavallari home packing.

“Looks like I’ll be in the audience next week, lovelies!” Cher tweeted Tuesday after Bono survived eliminations.  “Thank you so much!”

Lake, 43, told ABC News she and Hough are putting in extra hours to tackle the up-temp Tango they’ll perform tonight in front of Cher.

“It’s really hard and I’m very stressed out because we don’t have a lot of time,” the former talk-show host said.

Lake is putting in the hours, but not expecting Cher’s vote.

“She’s going to be voting for her son,” Lake predicted to ABC.  “As she should.”

Lake famously tweeted her first dance-related injury, a softball-sized bruise on her shin, for the world to see.  Now, she says, even as the weeks progress and her body grows accustomed to dancing, the blisters and the pain have not gone away.

“All I feel is pain right now,” she said.  “Get me out of these shoes.”

The hours of tango-ing, salsa-ing and rumba-ing with Hough it has taken for Lake to acquire those blisters have paid off in another way, though, for the bride-to-be and mother of two sons.

“I’m shrinking,” she said of her weight loss on what she has termed the “Derek Hough Diet.”

Lake estimates she has dropped 13 inches off her body since Season 13 of the hit reality-TV show kicked off last month.

“My sweetheart’s like, ‘Wow, you’re disappearing,’” she said of fiance Christian Evans. “It’s going away, but I’m still a work in progress.”

Not disappearing is Lake’s will to win, a competitive nature hidden behind a sweet demeanor that has kept her in the game this far.

“I’m pretty competitive.  Everyone who knows me knows,” she said.  “I have a 10-year-old and I play him in Monopoly and I want to bankrupt that kid as fast as I can.”

Along with Lake and Bono, other celebrities who will dance in front of  Cher, the show’s judges and fans for the Mirrorball Trophy tonight are Hope Solo, J.R. Martinez, Rob Kardashian, Nancy Grace, Chynna Phillips, Carson Kressley and David Arquette.