Performing their favorite dance of the season first, Melissa Rycroft and her partner, Tony Dovolani, sambaed to the beat of 10-10-10. They returned to with a freestyle routine one judge called a "freestyle jackpot" and they got it...10-10-10 again.
"We wanted to come out and do the unexpected and take a risk--because finale's the time to do it," Rycroft told reporters afterward. "It paid off to me."
"It definitely paid off," added her partner Tony Dovolani. "This has been the most amazing ride of my life. The reason why we're here is because of the audience believing in us. We brought everything we could. We left our heart on the dance floor and I hope they saw that."
In second place, Kelly Monaco and her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, re-visited their Paso Doble to near perfection: 29.5 out of 30. They got the same score for their freestyle, performing to a song from "Dirty Dancing."
"We had a blast and entertained," Monaco said.
"And I would say she was definitely put in a corner in the beginning of the season -- kind of got her out of it -- and then, next thing you know, she's in the finals. We wanted to celebrate that."
Shawn Johnson and her partner, Derek Hough, wanted to celebrate their crowd-pleasing but rule-breaking quickstep again. The judges acknowledged it was a fantastic routine...but they still had to dock their score.
"I thought that was the best thing we'd ever done so getting to live that again was worth it," she said.
It meant third place for the night, even with a freestyle routine that earned them a perfect score and put shawn on the dance floor with the Olympic gymnasts known as "The Fierce Five."
"For them to take the time to come here and still support me was the best way to end this journey, the best comeback that I never got and the best moment to end it all."
There is one more dance left in this competition. It's the Insta- Dance. The final three couples will perform it for judges' scores only. By the end of the night, one of them will be named the "Dancing with the Stars: All Stars" champion.
