This is it, Dancing with the Stars fans!

Tonight, we find out who will be going home with the DWTS Mirror Ball Trophy and who will just be going home. Of the 11 celebrities who began season 12, only three remain: Kirstie Alley, Chelsea Kane and Hines Ward. Each of the stars has a chance at ballroom-dancing glory, but which will it be?

 

At some point in the next couple of hours, we’ll have the answer to that question.

Who did you pick as the season 12 winner?

Do the BuddyTV readers think that Hines is a lock for victory? Do you hope for Chelsea to dance away with the prize? Will you defy the judges and select Kirstie?

Will our predictions be right for once?

According to the last BuddyTV Readers’ Poll of the Dancing with the Stars season, the audience is divided when it comes to a victor. Hines Ward has a slight lead, garnering 46% of the vote for a winner. Chelsea Kane, however, is not too far behind with 44%. Kirstie Alley trails the leaders with only 10% of the votes cast.

As it has been for so much of the season, it’s going to be close.

Did you miss anything?

This is the second half of the finals. It just wouldn’t do to miss the first half, would it?

Of course not. But if you did, check out our Finale, Part 1 Recap and Performance Rankings.

If clicking on links and adding up scores is too hard (we understand), here are the scores:

  • Hines and Kym: 59 points
  • Chelsea and Mark: 59 points 
  • Kirstie and Maks: 54 points

So we have a tie for first place, with Kirstie and Maks only a few points behind.

I guess it’s time to find out how it will all go in…

The Finale!

Guess what? Technical difficulties again! Hope nothing exciting happened in the first few minutes…

Anyway, the Black-Eyed Peas are performing their new single now. Seems to be a lot of the dark lighting and disco feel that we saw in yesterday’s freestyle.

Now the judges are trying to convince us that each of the finalists deserves to win. I wonder which one they actually want. You know they have opinions. Lots and lots of opinions.

And here come the stars in a very, very dramatic introduction. Ooh! They’re all standing on glowing, smoking light boxes!

Mike Catherwood is back! With pink leg warmers! Um, Mike, no one did the Macarena between ’84 and ’86.

Although I have to ask, was this all they found for the Dancing with the Stars troupe to do all season? Look disgusted at Mike?

But oh, he cannot dance even a little.

Time to look back now. Ah, memories…

Petra and Dmitry are dancing their story waltz again. Unless this is just the footage from Week 3 again. I honestly can’t remember it well enough to tell. I’m guessing it’s a new version since there’s a Mirror Ball trophy.

And hey! Josh Groban! Obviously this is a new version, since Petra and Dmitry both stopped mid-dance to gawk.

It took me a minute to stop giggling enough to type that last sentence. Maybe if you want the dance to go smoothly, you should tell the dancers who will be singing. Or not.

Tom is funny.

Kendra is back for that stripper dance again. This time she’s dancing with three men instead of one. But will she end up on the judges’ table again? Oh my. It’s five men now. You have to give the lady credit — this is one entertaining dance. And there she goes on the table, this time with two guys.

OMG! Kendra just almost died! Seriously. Header off the judges’ table.

Louis caught her though.

Time for the fighter-types to go head-to-head now. Chris vs. Sugar Ray. Lots of anticipation from the announcer-guy (he’s probably famous, but I watch neither wrestling nor boxing and wouldn’t know).

I miss these guys. They were fun.

Oh, it’s on now! Except it’s not. It’s over. I wonder who would win in hand-to-hand combat, a wrestler or a boxer? Discuss.

Chris Jericho has a scary-good Bruno impression. At least he hasn’t been lazy these past few weeks.

Wendy is interviewing herself now. Also Tony. This amuses Tony.

It’s time for the Macy’s Stars of Dance performance, with music from the Go-Gos. They’re kind of older now.

Romeo’s turn to be back now. Hey, he’s dancing to that song that everybody in the entire universe sang at every gathering the whole time I was in middle school!

It’s “The Greatest Love of All” in case you want to date me.

This dance has new choreography. Impressive. Also, there’s a children’s choir in white robes accompanying the singer. Seriously.

The cheesiness factor of this particular episode may have reached new heights. Romeo loves everybody, individually.

Wow, they can’t even show the Kym getting smushed image without blurring it now. Can’t say I’m upset about this.

Ralph Macchio and Karina Smirnoff are doing that speakeasy dance again. That was a cool dance.

Lord, this show is going on forever, isn’t it?

Um, what’s happening now? There’s some mash-up of every judge comment happening to a beat. It’s a little terrifying.

It’s time for the finalists! Finally! Yay! Maybe something will happen soon. Like… Dancing? Dancing! Woo-hoo! Dancing!!!

Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas
Dancing the Viennese waltz

Judges’ Comments:
Len: “Sometimes I know my comments have disappointed you.” “You are a fantastic dancer.”
Bruno: “Bellissima! Bravissima!” “You never, ever have put a foot wrong in this competition.”
Carrie Ann: “Because of performances like this, everybody knows who you are.”

My Comments: Still don’t know why this is classical music, but whatever, it was interesting before, and it continues to be so. They said they’re sticking closer to the official waltz form for Len, but I can’t particularly tell. Hey, do you think they brought the full orchestra back for just this performance? That was nice. Familiar but nice.

Scores: 10+10+10 = 30

OK, so the scoring works like this: half from the judges’ three finale scores, half from votes. Is that different or the same? I can’t remember.

Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Dancing the cha-cha

Judges’ Comments:
Len: “Tonight, you have produced your best dance. Well done.”
Bruno: “Kirstie, you cheeky girl! You saved the best for last!” “You’ve never danced better! Brilliant!”
Carrie Ann: “I love you so much, and I know I’m not alone when I say I love you for being you.”

My Comments: “Forget You” was their song in week 1? I’ve heard that song so many times since then that I forgot. Also, wow, Kirstie has really lost an insane amount of weight. Good for her. This dance is looking more polished than many that Kirstie has performed in the past couple of shows. It probably helps that she did this before and therefore had a little more practice time. Nice.

Scores: 10+10+10 = 30
 
If everyone gets perfect scores, did tonight’s dancing even matter? That would be a wee bit anticlimactic. Oh well.

Hines Ward and Kym Johnson
Dancing the samba

Judges’ Comments:
Len: “What is so appealing about you is the packaging. You bring every dance to life.”
Bruno: “A killer when you play sport, a charming dazzler when you’re out her, I’ll tell you, we all fall in love.”
Carrie Ann: “Hines, in all honestly, you are the MVP of season 12.” “I am so impressed with you. You danced with heart and it shows.”

My Comments: Hines is showing off his legs. Oh, stop being so charming Hines! I remember loving this samba back in week 3. And it’s still kind of awesome. How can it not be when Hines gets to grin the entire time. It probably doesn’t hurt that his actual dancing looks pretty nearly perfect. Good choice for the last dance of the season. And of course he kisses his mother at the end…

Scores: 10+10+10 = 30

Three perfect scores! You know, of course, that this means the entirety of this episode (all 1 hour and 45 minutes of it) doesn’t actually make any difference. Ah, filler! Where would the competition shows be without it?

Wait, someone’s singing. How can someone be singing right now? We only have 13 minutes left in the episode! Why would we want someone to be singing? And how was the 75 minutes of filler not enough to contain this???

By the way, it’s Sarah Evans.
 
I almost missed that we’re about to get results. Way to downplay it hosts. RESULTS!

The third place couple, out of contention for the Mirror Ball is… Chelsea and Mark!!!

More RESULTS now! And the second place couple is: Kirstie and Maks!!!

Which means that…

Hines Ward and Kym Johnson have won season 12 of Dancing with the Stars!

So that’s that. Hines won. And it took only two hours to tell us that!

Want more Dancing with the Stars info? Check out our DWTS Insider page on Facebook.

Did the right dancer win? Did you want someone else to take the Mirror Ball? Was this expected or not? Share your opinions and comments below!

(Images courtesy of ABC)

 

Laurel Brown

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

Laurel grew up in Mamaroneck, NY, Grosse Pointe, MI and Bellevue WA. She then went on to live in places like Boston, Tucson, Houston, Wales, Tanzania, Prince Edward Island and New York City before heading back to Seattle. Ever since early childhood, when she became addicted to The Muppet Show, Laurel has watched far too much TV. Current favorites include ChuckModern FamilySupernaturalMad Men and Community. Laurel received a BA in Astrophysics (yes, that is possible) from Colgate University and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History of Science from Columbia University before she realized that television is much better than studying.