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| Dance champs Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd. Adam Taylor/ABC |
I’m sure there was a time when I would have said you’d have to pay me to watch every minute of a season’s worth of Dancing with the Stars. Well, TheStar.com did, and have to admit that by the time this thing ended Tuesday night I was glad they asked.
Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl champ Donald “Double D” Driver ended up waltzing off with the Mirror Ball trophy, edging gutsy classical singer Katherine Jenkins at the end. Telelatino heartthrob William Levy finished in third place.
The long-running ABC series is a well produced variety show, features a talented house team of professional musicians and dancers and this season showcased celebrities who never took a week off or coasted through to the finals on the strength of their phone-in fan base. The judges are the best trio on the TV talent show circuit, and host Tom Bergeron is a nimble and witty ringleader.
In a season where celebrities gave their all, you had to give the edge to a trained athlete. Driver just have that much more drive, stamina and athletic ability at the end.
The finale was a hit in America, drawing an overnight, estimated 17.5 million ABC viewers and beating the Tuesday performance finale of American Idol on Fox (14.4 million). CTV, which carried both shows, says the results were flipped in Canada, with 2.3 million watching Idol at 8 p.m. and close to two million catching the DWTS finale at 9 p.m.
You can find my recap of the dance finale here at TheStar.com.
