'Dancing With The Stars' Finale Recap: Meryl Davis & Maksim Chmerkovskiy Win; Amy Purdy & Derek Hough Runner-Ups

by Chelsea ReganMay 21, 2014, 12:00 amNews >

Dancing with the Stars returned on Tuesday for the second night of its two-part finale with just Meryl Davis, Amy Purdy and Candace Cameron Bure.

Dancing With The Stars Recap

ABC recruited a lot of talent for the season 18 finale, including contestant Cody Simpson, season 17 winner Amber Riley, Ariana Grande, Izzy Azalea and Christina Perry.

The first dance of the night was performed by James Maslow and Peta Murgatroyd, who were eliminated on Monday. Though they didn’t get the votes to stick around for the finals, the Twitter audience picked them to put on an encore of their hip-hop freestyle routine infused with Maslow’s martial arts skills.

Team Loca, whose live Latin night group number had to be nixed after Amy was taken to the hospital for back spasms, finally got to perform the routine for the live audience. The biggest cheers from the crowd went to one of Amy and Derek’s lifts, though Danica McKellar and Val Chmerkovskiy and the other three finalists were all fun to watch.

Throughout the night, all of the eliminated contestants got a chance to take one more turn on the dance floor. Drew Carey and Cheryl Burke danced a lighthearted jive; NeNe Leakes danced with a host of female pros; Danica and Val reprised their Beauty and the Beast-themed quickstep; Charlie White and Sharna Burgess reprised their Marry Poppins jazz routine; James and Peta did their Michael Jackson-themed cha-cha.

24-Hour Fusion Challenge

Finally, it was time for the three remaining contestants to perform their final dance that would be considered in deciding who would win the Mirror Ball Trophy.

Amy and Derek’s routine combined the Argentine tango and the cha-cha. Amy once again showed that she’s up for a challenge and put everything she had into the dance moves that Derek choreographed for her. As has become a staple of their routines, it had a stunning lift that make the audience cheer. Scores: 10+10+10=30

Candace and Mark did a quickstep/samba, which they only started working on earlier in the day. Unlike when she’s had to do Latin stances in the past, Candace appeared to be a bit more loose on the dance floor. The judges agreed that she’s noticeably improved over the weeks. Scores: 9+9+9=27

Meryl and Maks’s final dance was a combination of a foxtrot and a cha cha. Once again, the duo was flawless from start to finish, eliciting ample praise from the judges. The normally reserved Len Goodman revealed that this might be his last season on DWTS, and if it is, he’s happy that’s the last dance he’d score. Scores: 10+10+10=30

Results

For the first part of the results, Tom Bergeron revealed that it was Candace and Mark, who were more than 10 points behind both Meryl and Amy on the leaderboard, that ended up in third place. Neither Candace nor Mark appeared to be too surprised. The winners of Season 18 of Dancing with the Stars are Meryl and Maks, who were equally ecstatic with the victory.