Who Won 'Dancing With the Stars'?
by Richard Sharp
If at first you don’t succeed…
While he wasn’t able to hoist the Lombardi Trophy with the Pittsburgh Steelers this year after losing to the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl, Hines Ward did end up clinching the championship of “Dancing with the Stars” Season 12.
Ward and his partner Kym Johnson won with a perfect score of 30 from the judges for their samba, after scoring 59 of 60 for their two dances from Monday. It was a stunning return for the team, and particularly for Johnson, who was hospitalized May 13th after being injured performing with Ward.
Ward beat out stunner Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas and weight loss champ Kirstie Alley and her partner Maksim Chmerkovski.
Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas busted out their Viennese Waltz, scoring perfect 10s from the judges, who clearly didn’t think the couple was going on based on the tone of their comments, and wanted to leave the dirty work to the audience.
After surviving a brutal floor-crashing performance earlier in the season, Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovski did the cha-cha, also garnering perfect 10s for their effort. For Alley, perhaps even more important was the loss of six dress sizes she reportedly dropped during the season.
Lest we think it was all about ballroom dancing, the Black Eyed Peas performed “Don’t Stop the Party,” with Will.I.Am sporting some sort of futuristic helmet thing, Fergie dolled up in a retro-futuristic dress with a built in whiplash prevention system and a cadre of cyborg backup dancers.
The Go-Gos came back from a time warp, reprising “We Got the Beat” for some reason.
Further non-essential entertainment was provided by former Playmate Kendra Wilkinson, who came back for a special performance after being eliminated earlier in the season. Wilkinson and her partners had a miscue and the well-endowed Wilkinson accidentally hit her head on the way down from judges’ podium.
Very expensive boxing announcer Michael Buffer intro’ed a a dance-off between wrestler Chris Jericho and boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. No winner was declared, but Sugar Ray may have lost by default with his red spangly outfit.
When it came down to the final results for the show, the trophy went to Ward and Johnson.
Dressed in Steelers black and gold, Ward gave all the credit to his partner (which makes sense, as he did put her in the hospital).
"You know, starting this competition, I never thought I'd be in the finals," Ward told Tom Bergeron. "But I owe it all to Kym. She's an amazing teacher, and I want to thank the judges for giving us the constructive criticism to help me get better each week. Also, I want to thank all the fans."
It was a big win for Ward, and also for ABC, which proudly proclaimed that this was the most-watched season of "Dancing with the Stars" yet.