Dancing with the Stars has crowned its new champions.
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NFL football star Hines Ward and professional partner Kym Johnson were crowned Dancing with the Stars' twelfth-season ballroom champions during Tuesday night's live finale results show on ABC.
"You know, starting this competition, I never thought I'd be in the finals but I owe it all to Kym, she's an amazing teacher," Ward said after Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron revealed the couple's victory.
"I want to thank the judges for giving us the constructive criticism to help me get better each week. But also I want to thank all the fans.... we love Steeler Nation and... we appreciate all the votes and everything. I hope I represented well for the city of Pittsburgh," the Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver added.
Ward and Johnson were crowned Dancing with the Stars' champions based on the combination of their share of the judges' scoring points from Monday and Tuesday night's three finale performance rounds and their share of the home viewer votes that were cast immediately after Monday's two initial rounds.
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Actress and former Kirstie Alley's Big Life star Kirstie Alley and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy finished in second place.
"It's like the most extraordinary adventure I've ever been on in my life. And I want to thank Maks -- I love Maks," Alley told Dancing with the Stars co-host Brooke Burke afterwards.
"It's been a special season, but I don't only have words for Kirstie, I have words for [the] previous nine partners I had, because this is the tenth trophy that I got. Thank you for this [Kirstie], it has been an amazing, amazing season," Chmerkovskiy added.
While they had tied with Ward and Johnson for first place on the judges' scoring leaderboard, Disney Channel star Chelsea Kane and partner Mark Ballas finished in third place.
Both couples had received 59 out of 60 possible points from Dancing with the Stars judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli for the two routines they had performed during Monday night's first two finale performance rounds. Alley and Chmerkovskiy had followed in third place with 54 total points.
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Tuesday night's broadcast featured all three couples re-performing their favorite twelfth-season dance.
Kane and Ballas decided to revisit the Viennese waltz routine they had dubbed "Wizard Waltz." Alley and Chmerkovskiy settled on the cha cha they had performed in the competition's first week, while Ward and Johnson opted to re-perform a samba they had danced in honor of Ward's mother.
Unsurprisingly, all three performances received perfect 30 out of 30 scores from the judges -- leaving Ward and Johnson and Kane and Ballas still tied with 89 points each and Alley and Chmerkovskiy five points back with 84 points.
The couples' shares of the judges' scoring from all three performance rounds was then combined with their shares of the home viewer votes that were cast immediately after Monday night's two initial rounds and all three couples' final finishes were announced.
About The Author: Steven Rogers