"Dancing With Stars" Waltzes to Finale
Three celebrity contestants - entertainers Mya and Donny Osmond and reality TV star Kelly Osbourne - tried to dazzle the judges with their footwork Monday night in the final round of competition for the mirrorball trophy.
Each danced an assigned ballroom number, participated in a choreographed piece with the other contestants and showed off his or her technique in a freestyle dance, which in the past have been season show-stoppers.
Judge's scores will be combined with viewer votes to determine who wins the trophy tonight.
Highlights of Past Seasons
Photos: "Dancing With The Stars"
The singer Mya has been consistently earning the top scores of the competition and this week was no different.
She won perfect scores of 30 each for her fiery paso doble and for her work in the megamix challenge, which saw her dancing side-by-side with Donny Osmond and Kelly Osbourne.
Mya's "Hairspray"-themed freestyle dance got only 27 out of 30 points. Judge's couldn't fault her footwork but they said it lacked the "wow" factor a finale deserves. They also admitted they had set the bar higher for her, based on past performance.
"I was expecting something a little bit more spectacular," judge Bruno Tonioli said. Nevertheless, she ended the night with a score of 87 out of 90.
The lowest score went to Osbourne, with 76 points out of 90. Throughout the season, the judges have told her she has the skill but needs the confidence.
She and professional partner Louis Van Amstel collected 26 points each for their Argentine tango and megamix performance. The couple's glittery freestyle dance to the '70s classic "I Will Survive" earned 24 points. The judges didn't give her their points, but they did reward her with praise, saying among other things that she was the contestant who showed the most growth all season.
"One thing is for sure," Tonioli said. "You never looked more beautiful than tonight."
Osbourne said she exceeded her own expectations on the ABC show.
"I didn't think that I really could do it, but this was my opportunity to show people that I have grown up," the reality star said Monday. "Every single dance we've done so far in this competition has been such a learning process and an adventure for me. I never thought we were going to get this far, but I'm so glad we did."
Osmond finished in second place with 85 out of 90 points. He earned a perfect score of 30 for his Broadway-inspired freestyle routine, which head judge Len Goodman called "an absolute show-stopper." The couple collected 27 points for a cha-cha and 28 during the megamix challenge.
Despite the second-place finish, Osmond said he still wants to become the "Dancing" champ.
"I want to win this mirrorball so badly," he said Monday. "Because if you had a sister named Marie and she was going to rub it in your face your whole life, you'd want to win, too."
Each will perform again on Tuesday's episode, when a new champ will be crowned. The finale also will feature a performance by singer Whitney Houston and a dance-off between NFL rivals Michael Irvin, who competed this season, and past season champ Jerry Rice.