SAN FRANCISCO, US - Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's popularity among geeks has failed to save him from being voted off US television show "Dancing with the Stars."

Wozniak's fourth strut in a contest that pairs celebrities or athletes with professional ballroom dancers began on Tuesday with him clenching a long-stem rose in his teeth and ended with his tango skewered by judges.

"We all know that the tango originated in the ghettos of Buenos Aires, but the only thing you picked up from that is the stench because this really stunk," Italian judge Bruno Tonioli told Wozniak.

A week earlier, 58-year-old Wozniak and his partner Karina Smirnoff had gotten the lowest score in the show's six-season history but were spared elimination by votes from viewers.

The portly Wozniak has been lobbying for the "geek vote" online and in the real world since he became a contestant on the show.

"There is an improvement from last week," judge Len Goodman told Wozniak. "But improvement is relative and last week was so terrible that almost anything that happened would be an improvement."

Judge Carrie Ann Inaba called Wozniak "the ultimate underdog" but said the only nice thing she could see in his tango was that he is "adorable."

"That Argentine tango has a lot of love and hate," Wozniak said in a pre-show interview. "And that seems right because the judges seem to hate me and the fans seem to love me."