Nyle and Peta, with Nyle becoming the first deaf winner of DWTS!
This marks Peta’s second win (after season 14 with Donald Driver), putting her in the elite company of Cheryl, Julianne, Mark, Derek, and Kym as a multiple winner. Fun fact: Peta’s six-season gap between wins is a record for the show. Nyle is the second model to win DWTS after Brooke Burke in season 7.
The very worthy runners up were Paige and Mark, who led on judges’ points but did not get as much of the popular vote as Nyle. Mark becomes the first professional on DWTS to be the runner up three times. Of the three finalists, Paige is the best dancer – Len and Bruno admitted as much, and in the usual “finalists’ strengths and weaknesses” video package, Paige was assessed as “she can do everything.” But Nyle’s story proved too compelling for viewers, and got him the trophy.
In third place were Ginger and Val, who simply peaked too soon in the season to bring it all home. She seemed to have it all at the start of the season, but Paige slowly overtook her in skill, and Nyle kept inspiring viewers, leaving Ginger with no more than good dancing and likability going for her (enough for the finals, but not the trophy). This is Val’s third time in third place, a feat achieved previously only by Maks and Mark. In general, Val seems to do rather poorly in the finals, because balls-to-the-wall freestyles aren’t his thing. The Chmerkovskiy brothers are the only pros to be in the final thrice or more, yet win only 20% of the time. That said, Val is still one of the more successful pros, as the only non-Hough to average a fifth-place finish or better.
Before the winners were announced, the couples competed in the 24-hour Fusion Challenge. However, to ease their way, half of each couples fusion was the dance style either performed on Monday or performed as their encore. Ginger and Val went first, doing an Argentine tango/foxtrot fusion (even if there wasn’t much foxtrot going on). The judges called her out for messing up in the middle, though we thought (and Val claimed) that she was just working the crowd. She got the Nines of Disappointment, for a total of 85 (third place on the leaderboard).
Nyle and Peta did a tango/cha-cha fusion, and killed it. We caught a small stumble in the latter half, but he still got a perfect score. Nyle has wowed us time and again this season; as Len said, he never needed the sympathy vote. Peta’s been crying for half the season, but after the fusion dance, Nyle also broke down into tears. And for the extra oomph of emotion, Carrie Ann made a truly lovely gesture by complimenting him in ASL.
Paige and Mark closed out the night with a jive/salsa fusion. Paige did a fantastic number that showed off all her strengths, and got a perfect score. The rehearsal footage was where the emotions were deeply felt. Mark, who turned thirty during the finale (and got the score to match), reflected on how he’s spent his entire twenties on DWTS. Paige reflected on how the show’s made her grow (and it’s really obvious even to viewers). She shed some tears because she’s really bad at good-byes. Us too!
The finalists’ choice of encores was really interesting. Val and Ginger were the only ones to select a number from the latter half of the season, choosing their perfect-scoring Argentine tango. Aside from being really impressive, this showed Ginger’s sexy side and how she’s gotten her confidence during the show.
Nyle and Peta went with their cha-cha from the very first week, the first number that impressed upon America that Nyle was not a gimmick contestant but could dance with the best of them. The cha-cha was just as fun and sexy this time around, and served to remind us how impressive Nyle’s entire run has been.
Paige and Mark chose to recreate their UFC-based paso doble from Week 4, and this was the obvious choice. This paso is a masterpiece of dance, by far the most iconic number of the season and the one that’ll go down as a DWTS classic. It was just as glorious this time around, even if Tom thought Paige should’ve let Mark win this go-around.
The couples in fourth through seventh place did encores as well. Antonio and Sharna fortunately chose to reprise “Friend Like Me,” which allowed us another 90 seconds of Sharna in Jasmine getup. Kim and Sasha were victims of dreadful camerawork, as instead of their dance we saw Fleur East singing, Witney backup-dancing, and the crowd holding cameraphones up (maybe they got better footage?). Wanya and Jodie both repeated their last individual dances, which both received perfect scores – a Charleston and Jive, respectively. We suppose they wanted to hammer that last impression home.
As usual, there was a heaping helping of filler: the “Men of DWTS”/”Women of DWTS” numbers fell a little less flat than usual, Fifth Harmony performed, former champions gave their two cents, and Kenny Mayne interviewed football players (boring instead of funny). Meanwhile, recaps of the season reminded us of how dramatic the Switch-Up was, what a close race it’s been, and how we wish we could forget the Donald Trump dance number. We haven’t time to talk about all the filler segments, so we narrowed it down to a Perfect Ten.
- Pitbull performed “Messin’ Around” with the female pros shimmying all around him. Erin was disgruntled at the lack of invitation to join, but tried to needle him into guest judging next season. Must he?
- The Chmerkovskiy brothers gave a preview of their touring dance show, which looked like they’d both ingested more caffeine than strictly healthy. Worth it purely for Tom’s quip that their car must contain “hot air bags.”
- Aloe Blacc singing “Let the Games Begin” during the finalists’ final retrospective on the season. There was a surprising lack of tears during this segment.
- Dan + Shay singing “From the Ground Up” as Witney and Artem apparently got married in dance amid a blast of confetti. Perhaps Witney’s still in a matrimonial mood after her real wedding in January?
- An ad for next season with Tom as Uncle Sam promising to “make America dance again,” and swearing our votes on season 23 will be the most important votes we make.
- High-energy opening number, where not only did Tom and Erin dance a bit, but we finally got see the famous Mandy Moore, choreographer of all our favorite pro numbers.
- Celebrities talking about DWTS, from Mischa succumbing to peer pressure to remove her shirt (and demonstrating impressive reflexes when her bra flew open), to the discovery that manbuns get you to DWTS finals, to Ginger’s revelation that Val rehearses commando (a fact discovered when she slid down his body from a wonky lift, needing something to grab).
- Group number (all the stars and pros) about a “Summer Thing.” Sasha got to bust out his crab costume again! Per Tom, with the exception of Len, no one does crab better than Sasha.
- Video of dress rehearsal – always hilarious, and it looks like much more fun than the actual show. Witness Erin and Tom comparing whose hair looks faker, Len worrying about a thong, and Erin’s (sad but true) joke that if history’s taught us anything, it’s that Keo will get eliminated right away.
- Lindsay and Witney playing “Are You Smarter Than a Dancer?” The two girls proved that yes, you probably are, since they couldn’t even identify an abacus or a rotary phone. Here’s to keeping dumb blonde stereotypes alive – as the girls said, they never went to college. We demand ABC spin this off into its own show right away (hey, they have some time slots to fill after cancelling everything we love!)
Are you happy with Nyle winning? Who do you hope to see cast in season 23? And are you smarter than a dancer?