Hines Ward And Kym Johnson Win On Dancing With The Stars

Season 12 of Dancing With the Stars came to a close in a two-hour finale last night, where crowd favorites Hines Ward and partner Kym Johnson were declared winners of the coveted Mirrorball trophy.

“Starting this competition I never thought I'd be in the finals but, you know, I owe it all to Kym,” said Ward. He also thanked the judges and the duo’s fans, saying, “We love Steeler nation and Bulldog nation.” Hines is a University of Georgia alum and currently a wide receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

All three finalists performed once more in a last-ditch effort to raise their judges’ scores, but since they all received perfect 30s, it didn’t help anyone edge ahead of the competition. Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas performed the “Wizard waltz,” the Viennese waltz to the Harry Potter theme song, Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy did their Week One cha cha, and Hines and Johnson reenacted their Week Three samba to Earth Wind & Fire’s “Fantasy,” which Hines had dedicated to his mother.

Viewers' votes based on Monday's performances accounted for half of the total score of Tuesday's results. The other half comprised judges' points from the two dances each couple performed on Monday and the one dance performed on Tuesday. Kane and Ballas were put in third place, while Alley and Chmerkovskiy came in second.

But of course, being a season finale, the episode had to be extravagant. It was filled with performances by the Black Eyed Peas, season three contestant Sara Evans, former contestant and supermodel Petra Nemcova and her partner Dmitry Chaplin, Josh Groban, as well as eliminated contenders from the current season.