New 'DWTS' Champ: Meliissa Rycroft Prevails For The First Time [WATCH VIDEO]
Melissa Rycroft is the new "Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars" champion, winning her first Mirror Ball Trophy and beating former "DWTS" winners Shawn Johnson and Kelly Monaco.
Rycroft was seen as the underdog toward the end of the competition, being the only contestant who had never won "DWTS" before to make it to the finals. The finals also included all women competitors, another first for the reality dancing competition.
Monaco and her partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy came in third place. Right before the show's host, Tom Bergeron, announced who would win the coveted trophy -Johnson or Rycroft - he said "now they also have one," and the whole audience immediately knew that Rycroft won. Coincidentally enough, Johnson and Rycroft competing previously on the same season and made it to the top two last time as well.
"The next thing I heard was Melissa and Tony and I took a minute and said did that just happened?" Melissa said about her reaction to the results on Tuesday.
The former cheerleader and "Bachelor" contestant could not be more happy, along with her professional dance partner Tony Dovolani, who had never won the competition in all of his 14 seasons with the show. Rycroft tasted defeat and now she tasted victory.
She and Dovolani hugged, jumped and held the Mirror Ball Trophy high as the other dance competitors raised them on their shoulders. Cameras from backstage showed the past competitors go into a frenzy when Rycroft was announced the winner, proving the support she had from her fellow dancers.
The three final dancing couples performed instance dance routines on the two-hour ABC finale, which aired Tuesday night. Johnson and her partner Derek Hough performed a cha cha, Rycroft and Dovolani did a samba and Monaco and Chmerkovskiy did a jive, all which were given to them less than a hour before they had to perform.
Hough and Johnsson were asked to do their freestyle dance again because the judges loved it so much on Monday night. Many fans thought they would win the Mirror Ball Trophy after they got rave reviews from the judges and the loudest cheers from the audience.
Watch the full episode of Tuesday night's finale and see Rycroft and Dovolani scream for joy.
