The "Dancing With The Stars" season 18 finale began in a grand way: an opening number featuring the whole cast and pro dancers. Last night was intense, with James and Peta being eliminated, leaving Meryl and Maks, Amy and Derek and Candace and Mark. After presenting the finalists, it was announced that the viewers actually chose the freestyle dance of James and Peta by a "landslide" to repeat tonigh. So they took the dance floor one last time to prove once again that they should've gotten more votes than what they got.
As we might remember from Latin Night, the contestants performed the first group number, being "Team Loca" the ones with the highest score. Turns out, the three remaining contestants were part of that team, so they reprised their dance, this time around with Amy Purdy, who was out for the first one so they had to actually air the rehearsal footage. Of course, she vindicated herself from not being there the first time and the team, including Danica McKellar wowed one more time.
Iggy Azalea then took the stage to perform her hit single "Fancy" with Charlie XCX. Drew Carey and Cheryl Burke returned to the dance floor to reprise their Jive and after a standing ovation from the audience that lasted longer than usual, we got to see Erin Andrews' best moments as co-host on her first season on the job. Charlie White and Meryl Davis proved they not only have what it takes on the ice, but also on the dance floor as this olympian couple delivered a stunning performance for the first time on the stage of Dancing With The Stars. NeNe Leakes took the stage soon after and brought all her sass back!
Then it was the turn for Danica and Val, who performed their iconic routine from Disney night "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. Cody Simpson also return but not to the dance floor per se. He performed his single "Surfboard" to the delight of his fans and the viewers. Then Charlie and Sharna danced to their Disney Night routine from Mary Poppins "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." James and Peta went took the dance floor for a second chance to dance, this time to Michael Jackson's "Xcape." Ariana Grande then impressed everyone with ther amazing voice performing her hit "Problem."
Former champion Amber Riley took the stage with some of the best dancers in the world to perform a number sponsored by Wallgreens. And later the moment finally arrived when the three remaining couples had to perform the 24-hour fusion challenge routine. They all had 24 hours to put together a dance assigned to them at the end of last night's show. The judges' score of this dance will count as a part of their final result to win or not the Mirror Ball Trophy. First was Amy and Derek, who performed a mix of Argentine tango and Cha Cha. Their final judges' score was 30, nailing a 10 from Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli. Dancing a quickstep/samba fusion were Candace and Mark. They got a 27 out of 30, scoring nines from all judges.
With a foxtrot/cha cha fusion, Meryl and Maks took the dance floor. Carrie Ann said that the best part of the season was them, Len said this season was like a novel, and he hinted that this might be his last season on the show before praising the dance. Bruno said that watching them was like discovering the passion of the first love. As expected, they got a 30 out of 30 for another perfect score. Christina Perri later performed her hit "Only Human" as we saw footage from the three finalists at their best moments on the show.
The first moment of truth arrived. The first elimination had Candace Cameron-Bure and Mark Ballas in third place. In second place were Amy and Derek, making Meryl and Maks the new champions of Dancing With The Stars!
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