‘Dancing with the Stars’ Finale: The Winner of Season 23 Is Crowned

They got their Mirror Ball trophy for this year. One got eliminated, leaving top 3 finalists for the grand night.

During Tuesday night’s finale Hernandez’s partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, couldn’t hide his emotions and even shed a tear when the pair were declared the show’s winners. The judges cited her ability to learn as a performer beyond her dancing skills throughout the nearly three-month-long competition, in which she was the youngest competitor.

The judges once again had nothing but praise when commenting on Laurie and Val’s Argentine tango/foxtrot.

The final four have been performing at this pace for several weeks.

But then, shortly after retiring, ABC’s Dancing with the Stars announced that Johnson would be competing on their 23rd season.

After nearly three whole hours it took until 10:57 for Tom and Erin to reveal that the couple in third place was Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold, leaving just James Hinchcliffe and Laurie Hernandez vying for the Mirrorball.

James and Sharna redid their Hollywood quickstep from Cirque du Soleil Night.

Aside from showing off extreme dancing talent, Hernandez also wore her emotions on her sequined-sleeves at many points during the competition. They swayed on the song “Wicked Ones” by Dorothy, after the last episode which was pretty emotional for Laurie.

We’re left with just three Stars, so be sure to tell us in the poll who you want to see win!

Team Valaur has surpassed viewer expectations in Season 23 of “DWTS”. She also tied Season 21 victor Bindi Irwin’s record for most ideal scores in a season with eight. Their high scores from the judges, favorability among fans, undeniably adorable brother-sister chemistry and raw talent should easily carry them into the finale. Based on that alone, I am going to pick James & Sharna as the winners tonight!

In this November 22, 2016 photo released by ABC, Laurie Hernandez, left, and Val Chmerkovskiy celebrate after winning the 23rd season of the celebrity dance competition series, “Dancing With The Stars”, in Los Angeles.