Actress Jennifer Grey won “Dancing with the Stars” contest on Tuesday, while Bristol Palin, whose survival on the show caused nationwide controversy, ended in third place.
Jennifer Grey, 50, was named champion after a two hour broadcast and a record number of votes.
Former child star Kyle Massey, 19, was the runner-up. She was the star in Disney’s “That’s so Raven”.
Grey was the front runner for winning the show throughout the season in spite of being injured for most of the show and said she had a ruptured disc in her back on Monday.
Palin, daughter of the politician Sarah Palin, posed a real threat to Grey’s ambitions after coming back into the finals on the back of public support despite being ranked bottom by the judges for more than 6 weeks.
Bristol told of her experience as “life changing” saying she was blessed to be here.
Palin scored the lowest points again with the judges in the final with her tango and cha cha dances, but was commended for improving the performances in the last three months.
The winner was chosen on the basis of the scores from the three judges and the votes of the public, which the producers said were in record numbers, nearly 20 million.
The record voting also crashed the ABC TV website for some time, but the producers said the damage done was equal.
Palin’s entry into the final caused an uproar, saying she had benefited from the popularity of her mother at the expense of other contestants.
Just last week, an angry viewer shot his TV set with a shotgun while watching the show, and an envelope full of talcum powder showed up at the show’s LA set.
Palin said her critics were just “haters” who wanted her to fail.
The champion, Grey, is an expert dancer and was the early favorite as well. She is famous for playing a teen “baby” houseman in the movie “Dirty Dancing”.
Grey again scored a perfect 30 in the final for her Viennese waltz, which judge Bruno Toniolo called “blissfully beautiful”.
Answering a question about what she would miss the most, she simply replied, “Dancing”.
It was one of the best seasons for “Dancing with the Stars” in its five year stint on US TV. 23 million viewers tuned in to watch the finale, making it the most watched show that night.
