Las Vegas Weekly

May 19, 2009 · 10:12 AM

Photo Gallery: DWTS winner all set for Las Vegas celebration?

By Robin Leach

The final three couples on Season 8 of Dancing With the Stars.

Photo: ABC TV

Barring a last-minute upset of erratic TV viewer voting, it looks a certain bet that hot and handsome hunk Gilles Marini and dance partner Cheryl Burke, despite a judges’ scoring tie last night, will win the mirrored disco ball trophy on tonight’s Season 8 finale of Dancing With the Stars. The moment Cheryl wraps all the post-show press and multimedia interviews, she will head here Thursday night to celebrate.

As promised, here are the official ABC photos of the three final celebrity couples dancing the paso doble and freestyle challenges last night. In the freestyle round and really going for gold, Olympic gymnast and gold medalist Shawn Johnson and pro partner Mark Ballas received a perfect 30, making their night’s total 58; The Bachelor’s Melissa Rycroft and pro partner Tony Dovolani scored 27 for a total of 56; and Gilles, fighting through shoulder pain, and Cheryl received 28 for a total of 58. So TV producers have a last-minute nail-biter on their hands as the two leading contenders go into tonight’s viewer voting tied at 58 apiece -- and Melissa trailing in third place.

Our pick is for Gilles and Cheryl to grab the win, with Shawn and Mark as the runners-up and Melissa and Tony winding up in third. If we’re correct, then we can go all the way back to week 1 of the season and proudly claim we were right all along! And this would be a record-setting third title for Cheryl!

Tonight, our Las Vegas contingent of Julianne Hough, Derek Hough, Holly Madison, Chelsie Hightower and Steve-O, who were all eliminated in previous weeks, will perform their final showcase dances. Holly, who will dance the samba again despite a minor rib injury flare-up, promises to call after the show en route to Burbank Airport for her flight to McCarran with her observations of the results show.

We’ll be right here with our spoiler alert story shortly after 8 p.m. our time today as the champions are crowned, and again here tomorrow morning with the finals’ wrap up and photos.

Cheryl will be at Lavo in the Palazzo on Friday night to celebrate her birthday. Expect several of the DWTS professional dancers to join her birthday dinner and cake cutting in Lavo’s restaurant and nightclub.

This morning in New York, ABC President Steve McPherson confirmed that he has renewed the top-rated Dancing With the Stars with hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris and judges Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba for at least two more seasons this fall and next spring.

I’ve already heard rumblings that Luxor comedy headliner Carrot Top and Flamingo headliner singer Donny Osmond are being considered as celebrity participants!

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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