Dancing With the Stars Crowns Its New Len Goodman Mirrorball Champion

Twelve weeks have come and gone in an instant, and now, Dancing With the Stars has crowned its new Len Goodman Mirrorball champions.

The finale kicked off with a grand opening number to Candi Saton’s “Young Hearts Run Free,” choreographed by Ray Leeper, featuring this season’s eliminated contestants, including Harry Jowsey, Lele Pons, Mauricio Umanksy, Barry Williams, Jamie Lynn Spears, and more. 

Each couple was tasked with two rounds for the competition: the redemption dance and the coveted freestyle. The redemption round gives the couples a chance to redo a dance style they didn’t excel at the first time, while the freestyle tosses all of the rules out the window; anything goes for the final dance of the season.

In the first round, Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber performed a redemption Salsa to “Get On Your Feet” by Gloria Estefan, earning a 25/30, a significant leap from the 12/30 she made in week one. For her freestyle, Hannigan channeled her inner Swiftie for a ballroom-Latin mash-up of “Enchanted” and J. Lo’s “Papi,” complete with an American Pie reference. The dance garnered a 28/30, her highest score yet.

Jason Mraz and Daniella Karagach got two perfect scores throughout the night. The first was for their redemption Foxtrot to Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” an evident improvement from their week four performance. Karagch concocted the fan-favorite Charleston-Lindy hop-infused freestyle to “Happy” by C2C. The piece was so high energy that we were out of breath just from watching it.

Vanderpump Rules’ Ariana Madix and Pasha Pashkov attempted the Samba again to “Spice Up Your Life” by the Spice Girls. Given the slow tempo of the music that judge Carrie Ann Inaba pointed out, the piece earned an almost perfect score with a 29/30. Madix then gave us the ultimate pop princess performance in her freestyle, which was a high-energy mash-up to “Run The World (Girls)” by Beyoncé and “Level Up” by Ciara. Madix and Pashkov got a perfect score of 30/30.

Charity Lawson and Artem Chigvintsev performed a Tango to “Libertango” by Astor Piazzolla for their redemption dance, which they haven’t visited since the premiere. While Lawson danced so hard that both of her earrings flew off, Inaba still docked a point from her score for a “questionable” mistake that was not fully pointed out, thus getting a 29/30. In round 2, Lawson and Chigvintsev performed a high-flying cheerleading-inspired freestyle with members of Netflix’s Cheer. Judge Derek Hough exclaimed that there had never been a freestyle like that in the 32 seasons of the series, making it a standout. To no surprise, the couple earned a perfect 30/30.

Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy earned two more perfect scores in the finale, totaling four consecutive perfect scores from the semi-finals. In the redemption round, they performed the Foxtrot from week three to Katy Perry’s “Unconditionally.” For her freestyle, they paid tribute to Gomez’s Mexican-American heritage with an Ofrenda and Latin-inspired routine to “Que Calor” by District 78, complete with a violin solo from Chmerkovskiy himself.

It wouldn’t be a DWTS finale without some added surprises. For one, pros Alan Bersten and Britt Stewart choreographed an adorable Christmas-themed dance to “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town,” sung by hosts Alfonso Ribiero and Julianne Hough.

she knows she ate that pic.twitter.com/MylZ0JeGlx

— sam (@berstcns) December 6, 2023

We also saw the return of pro Witney Carson and former champions Heelio Castroneves, Hannah Brown, and Rashad Jennings.

This year was also the first time the reining champions presented the trophy to the new winners, so before that, Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas performed one final farewell Cha Cha.

After three long hours, it was time for the festivities to end and for the hosts to reveal the fate of the final five contestants. Taking home fifth place was Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber. Fourth place went to Charity Lawson and Artem Chigvintsev. Ariana Madix and Pasha Pashkov landed in third place.

Jason Mraz, Daniella Karagch, Xochitl Gomez, and Val Chmerkovskiy stood between the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. After a cruelly placed commercial break, with less than two minutes to spare, Ribiero announces that the new champions of DWTS are Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy.

we're gonna look back one day when xochitl gomez has countless storage units filled with awards and be like "remember when she was the first len goodman mirrorball trophy winner" #DWTS pic.twitter.com/3V2LE4VPIO

— ❦ (@rubycarstairs) December 6, 2023

The audience erupts in cheers, the couples are drowned in confetti, and season 32 of Dancing With the Stars is officially over. From the long preseason that included walkouts and controversial casting to extending the season by a few weeks, it feels like this season has gone on forever, but also like no time has passed. While fans bask in the win, they look forward to what next season offers.

Relive the magic of season 32 of Dancing With the Stars only on Disney+.