'Dancing With The Stars' season 23 finale: Winners revealed; watch the best dances from the most emotional DWTS season ender
"DWTS" season 3 ended with Laurie Hernandez taking the Mirror Ball
Season 23 of “Dancing with the Stars” is officially over and another couple is taking home the Mirror Ball trophy. The show has unveiled the winner for its 23rd season Tuesday night and it was Laurie Hernandez and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy. Other contestants who made it to the finals were Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold, and James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgees.
The winner of “Dancing with the Stars” was revealed after a two-night finale that started Monday when country singer Jana Kramer was eliminated. Her partner Gleb Savchenko had been battling flu and had missed some rehearsals for the finals. On Monday night’s first half of the finale, the show saw a substantial increase in ratings as it raked in 11.98 million viewers for the finale’s first half.
Hernandez had always been the show’s front-runner all throughout the season. The 16-year old Olympic gymnast came on the dance floor and worked hard day by day to repeatedly give stunning performances to the delight of the judges with her versatility in dance styles.
After nearly two hours of stunning performances and having to prepare one dance within the last 24 hours, there was time left in the last 10 minutes to announce that Calvin Johnson Jr. and Lindsay Arnold are in third place right before proceeding to a commercial break. Finally, "Dancing With The Stars" announced that Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy had emerged as winners for season 23, writes E! .
Of course, James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess gave their all and put up a good fight, but Laurie was the most graceful and the favorite of judges since the first day. Somehow, it appears that her gymnastic prowess gave her an advantage of moving gracefully and powerfully. Because of this, she practically did not give her opponents a chance at taking home the Mirrorball Trophy. This only means that this had been one big year for Laurie Hernandez. Earlier, she has won gold and silver medals in representing the United States in gymnastics in the Summer Olympics, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Opening Number - Dancing With The Stars
Laurie & Val Fusion - Dancing With The StarsSource: YouTube/Dancing with the Stars