Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough Win 'Dancing with the Stars'

Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough on Dancing with the Stars
Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough on Dancing with the Stars
By GLAMOROSI

On the Season 16 finale of Dancing with the Stars, the final two couples were Disney star Zendaya and Val Chmerkovskiy, and country singer Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough. When the scores by judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli were combined with the votes cast by the public, it was Pickler and Hough who were named the winners and awarded the coveted mirror ball trophy.

During the course of the Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) finale, viewers were treated to an encore of Kellie and Derek's gorgeous freestyle dance from the previous night's finals, performances by members of the DWTS troupe, and musical numbers by Pitbull, Psy and Jessica Sanchez. Country legend Wynonna Judd also performed, and was among the former contestants including Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill, comedian Andy Dick and reality show personalities Sean Lowe (The Bachelor) and Lisa Vanderpump (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), who cheered on the finalists. In a surprise move, judge Len Goodman joined Vanderpump and her pro partner Gleb Savchenko on the dance floor.

Hosts Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke-Charvet had four couples to tend to on the final night. First Olympic gymnast Alexandra Raisman and Mark Ballas were given the news that they were eliminated. Later the remaining three couples did a final judged dance - all three were awarded perfect scores - then Superbowl champion Jacoby Jones and his partner Karina Smirnoff were cut. This left two pairs to wait out the ominous music and dramatic pauses: Zendaya and Val Chmerkovskiy, and Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough. Finally, Bergeron made the announcement that Pickler and her pro partner Hough had won.

Although Pickler had experience in competitions garnered from her national television debut as a contestant on season 5 of the Fox network's singing contest, American Idol, she had no prior dance experience. For Derek Hough, who initially hadn’t planned to participate on DWTS this year, it was his fourth win.

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Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough's freestyle dance from the DWTS finals
Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough's freestyle dance from the finals
Photos ©ABC