'Dancing with the Stars' champion Kellie Pickler receives new puppy as victory gift

Kellie Pickler will be celebrating her Dancing with the Stars victory not only with a mirrorball trophy but also a new puppy as well.


During a Wednesday morning appearance on Good Morning America with her professional partner Derek Hough and fellow Dancing with the Stars Top 4 couples, Pickler's husband Kyle Jacobs had a video message to share with his wife.

"Baby, you won Dancing with the Stars! I can't believe it! You've never danced a minute in your life and you've been doing this for two-and-a-half months and you just won Dancing with the Stars. That is crazy. I'm so proud of you, I love you so much, and my little gift to you is this little fella right here," Jacobs said as he lifted up a little white puppy wearing a black bow tie.

Pickler's face lit up in surprise with a big smile.

"Maybe we should call him Tango," Jacobs added. "Because you really rocked the tango. Let's be honest."


"He's cute isn't he?!" Pickler said.

"Where's my puppy pie?!" Hough joked in a southern accent. "Where's my puppy?"

Pickler said winning the mirrorball trophy was special because her Grandpa Ken was in the audience for last night's finale.

"It was so great because he actually talked me into doing the show Dancing with the Stars," Pickler said. "He's never ever missed an episode of the season, so he was really excited. [The mirrorball] is going in his bedroom, he said, on his nightstand."

Pickler and Hough's stripped down contemporary freestyle is what arguably won the couple the reality dancing competition. Hough explained on GMA what gave him the inspiration for the dance's choreography.


"I felt like there was a missing ingredient with Kellie right to the end, and [judge Carrie Ann Inaba] said during the week of our samba, 'I'm missing your emotion. I'm missing the connection with you.' That stuck with me, and for our finale, I wanted to get that missing ingredient, which is the emotion. And Kellie just tore down the walls, put it out there and she was amazing. I couldn't be more proud of her," Hough explained.

Hough also said Inaba's finale comment that Pickler reminded her of Julianne Hough, his sister and fellow former Dancing with the Stars, was awkward.

"Yeah, super uncomfortable, yeah," Hough joked. "It felt really weird. I would have my hand around her waist and then I was like, 'Whoaaa.' No, but she really was so surprising because she's a country singer and that's what she does. She doesn't dance, she doesn't do anything athletic, and to see her come out and do that, it was just phenomenal. It blew me away and I was really happy to be a part of bringing that out."

As for the runner-up couple Zendaya Coleman and Val Chmerkovskiy, Chmerkovskiy joked that the Disney Channel star has left her mark on him -- literally.

"We did 14 dances and [I got] 14 stitches," Chmerkovskiy said, referring to an incident in which Coleman accidentally elbowed him in the eye during rehearsal. "This is my memory. I'll be able to say for the rest of my life a future Grammy winner, a future Oscar winner, gave me this scar." 






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski