N o w - H o l l y w o o d . b l o g s p o t .c o m

To see which contestant–Lance Bass, Warren Sapp or Brooke Burke–raised the mirror-ball trophy in triumph, continue reading…

vember 26, 2008

After 10 weeks of competition, Brooke Burke and her partner Derek Hough are in seventh heaven after being crowned season seven’s Dancing champs on Tuesday’s two-hour finale.

The duo raised their hands in triumph and hugged one another when their names were announced by co-host Tom Bergeron. Asked by Bergeron how it felt to win, Burke exclaimed, “Unbelievable!”

With her win, Burke joins an elite group of female stars–season one’s Kelly Monaco and season six’s Kristi Yamaguchi–who have hoisted the mirror-ball trophy and helped narrow the gap between the number of men to women Dancing winners to 4:3.

Burke and Hough headed into Tuesday night’s show with a 58 out of 60 for their samba and perfect freestyle. They received another perfect score for their third and final dance, the Viennese waltz, keeping them on top of the leader board with a total of 88 out of 90. They also won the viewers’ votes, which accounted for 50% of their total score.

For a moment it looked like crowd-pleaser, NFL star Warren Sapp, and his partner Kym Johnson had a chance to pull off an upset after Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer finished third in the competition.

But it was not to be. Burke, who was praised by the judges all season for her technical precision and grace on the dancefloor, and Hough sealed the deal Monday with a freestyle dance that simply blew away the competition.