Dancing with the Stars Finals - Pussycat Doll Takes the Mirrorball!

Dancing with the Stars season 10 winner is Nicole Scherzinger. It can't come as a surprise that the Pussycat Doll took home the mirrorball trophy. Throughout the entire DWTS competition, Nicole Scherzinger was in a league of her own. Many Dancing with the Stars fans took exception with the decision to include a contestant that has such extensive experience with dance as well as choreography. Historically, Dancing with the Stars has been about taking someone who doesn't have dance experience and watching them transform over the course of the competition. To be fair, this is not Nicole Scherzinger's fault-she competed in good faith and had to learn those dances just like everyone else. Nicole was the best and deserved to go home with that trophy.

The Dancing with the Stars finals featured performances by contestants eliminated over the course of the season and there is no doubt that eliminating Buzz Aldrin and Kate Gosselin were good decisions! It was sad to see Erin Andrews and Maksim Chmerkovskiy eliminated after coming so close and improving by leaps and bounds this season. Andrews acknowledged that she entered this competition to win her smile back and she accomplished that, which makes her a winner in spite of leaving without the trophy. It's well known that Erin Andrews went through a personal hell that few people could even imagine before entering the Dancing with the Stars competition, so it was a lot of fun to see her regain her confidence and leave with a smile on her face.

Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough's final performance this season on Dancing with the Stars was a doozy. They performed the Jive to "Proud Mary" and it was on fire. They received and deserved perfect 10's for this performance. It was hard not to feel bad for Evan Lysacek when judge Len Goodman stated that Nicole should be the winner before Evan and Anna had even danced.

After seemingly blowing his chances at the top spot in the Dancing with the Stars finals last night, Evan Lysacek came back to take second place in the competition. Lysacek struggled with the Latin dances over the course of the competition and excelled in the ballroom dances. Evan Lysacek is a very likeable guy and the grace he carried over from his skating translated well onto the dance floor. After the crash and burn of their freestyle performance last night, it seemed unlikely that Evan and Anna would even find themselves in the final two. Evan and Anna performed the Quickstep as their final dance and it was a fantastic performance. It may have been their best performance to date because Evan brought the entire package to his final performance. He was completely connected to Anna, appeared to be having a great time, and their timing and footwork were nearly flawless. Evan should go home proud!

This was the most watched season of Dancing with the Stars and it will be interesting to see what direction the show takes next season. The audience seems to want a return to competitors that don't have professional dance experience, however, raising the bar this season seemed to draw a bigger audience and certainly increased the quality of the performances. Congratulations to Derek and Nicole for an amazing season and for dazzling us all with your incredible performances.

Source: Dancing with the Stars