Dancing With The Stars: Grand Finale

Sunday, February 26, 2006

It all came down to tonight. Ten couples, eight weeks, and a competition where only one couple would come out on top. Dancing With The Stars has captivated America since shortly after the New Year. Tonight, we know who pulled out all the stops to win. We also were able to see the couples eliminated from the competition earlier on for one final dance. All that and a performance by Mary J. Blige in a special Sunday night two-hour grand finale episode. Let's talk about tonight's final performances from our couples.

First up we had Jerry Rice. I think everyone reading this would agree that when it comes to this competition, Jerry is not the best dancer in this competition. I do commend him for his improvement. He is really having fun out there, and that wasn't more evident than it was tonight. However, in my opinion, he didn't dance his best. He still looks stiff, and I'm not sure how he could continue to receive these high scores. As one commenter suggested the other day, perhaps ABC needs to save face here with keeping him. Did ABC saving face earn him a win? His combined judges scores came in at eighty for his cha cha.

Next up, we had Stacy Keibler. She has dominated in this competition from week one. She has an advantage here with extensive dance training in her background. However, she had began to falter the last couple of weeks. The judges weren't as happy with her performances as they had been in the past. They wanted to see more of her, and I have to agree with them. I think her faltering continued on tonight, even with the judges giving her a perfect score tonight. Tonight's samba performance didn't just wow me in the least. She is great, but I think tonight's performance depended much to much on her sex appeal. How many times does one need to shake their butt and breasts in one short performance? Her combined scores came in at eighty-six.

Lastly, Drew Lachey came in with a jive performance with his partner. On Thursday night, he had stepped up his level of competition a bit, and he earned two perfect scores for his performances that night. That is something that hadn't been done before. Tonight's performance definitely stepped it up again, but in a shocker he only received a twenty-seven. That is a good score, but in my opinion his dance tonight was the best of the three, and it at least earned him another score comparable to what Stacy earned tonight.

Once all three danced, their combined judges scores were combined with the viewer's voting results, and we learned which one of the three couples was eliminated first leaving the competition down to two. Coming in third place, we had Stacy and Tony. The competition was now between Jerry Rice and Drew Lachey. Now as much as I wasn't thrilled with her performance the last couple of weeks, I didn't think she did bad enough to come in third place. This competition was definitely between Drew and herself. However, America spoke, and they chose Jerry Rice and Drew Lachey. Which of the two men was crowned champion?

Before we found out, we had the couples eliminated in the previous weeks of this competition return for one more performance. Each couple came out for a brief performance that lasted all of a minute. first up, we saw the first four couples eliminated come out. After a commercial break, we saw the next three couples eliminated return for similar performances, only a bit longer than the previous four. It was truly wonderful to see our couples return, and as the host said we could remember what we loved about them and why they were no longer in the competition. Once they performed, we took a look back at the entire competition.

After another performance by Mary J. Blige and a few more commercial breaks, we finally learned who would be this season's Dancing With The Stars champion. Our winners were Drew Lachey and his partner Cheryl Burke. I am so pleased to see them win. They honestly stepped up in recent weeks, and they deserved to win the championship this season. During the entire competition, for myself personally my two favorites were Lisa Rinna and Drew Lachey. I'm glad to see one of them win. Congratulations Drew!