Las Vegas Weekly

May 25, 2010 · 8:26 PM

And the champion of Season 10 of Dancing With the Stars is …

By Robin Leach

Erin Andrews, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Anna Trebunskaya, Evan Lysacek, Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough on ABC's Dancing With the Stars Season 10 finale on May 25, 2010.

Photo: Adam Larkey/ABC TV

Season 10 of ABC’s giant ratings hit Dancing With the Stars ended tonight, and it was a cliffhanger right to the end, even though the head-to-head showdown was exactly as predicted. Eleven celebrity couples began 10 weeks ago, and just one remained standing to claim the prized mirror disco-ball trophy.

SPOILER ALERT: Please don’t read any further if you want to watch the West Coast tape-delayed broadcast of Dancing With the Stars without anything revealed. Consider this our one and only friendly warning! But come back after the show to see if you agree with our observations.

The evening was a three-hour extravaganza of DWTS starting with an encore presentation of last night’s shakeup show that saw ESPN host Erin Andrews and our Le Reve choreographer Maksim Chmerkovskiy slide past Olympic figure skating champion Evan Lysacek and Anna Trebunskaya. They lost their tied front-runner status with Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger and former Las Vegas resident Derek Hough when they slipped badly with what the judges decreed as “disappointing” last dances -- to put it kindly!

Once the final show started at 9 p.m. ET, all the stars and dance pros -- except for the three finalists -- including sexy Pamela Anderson, reality TV star Kate “The Eight” Gosselin and legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin performed a routine to The Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited.”

Nicole and Derek were first to dance their favorite dance, the Argentine tango, which was also selected by the other two competitors as their favorites. Evan and Anna danced second, and last night’s tear-aways Erin and Maks were third.

The judges congratulated all three couples, saying it’s been the highest standard of dancing and the best season of DWTS since it began. Only then did they hand out the votes, saying it’s the most difficult assignment they’ve ever faced.

The shakeup from last night’s standings continued with Erin and Maks sliding back to 26 points, Evan and Anna fighting back with 28 points and nipping at the heels of Nicole and Derek, definitely the favorites with a perfect score of 30.

To build suspense and pad the final episode, Buzz, whose Zero Gravity flights take off from McCarran Airport this Memorial Day weekend, danced in his spacesuit to the Star Wars theme with Ashly Costa, soap star Aiden Turner with Edyta Sliwinska and Shannen Doherty with Mark Ballas, who will celebrate his birthday at Tao in The Venetian on Saturday night. That was followed by The Bachelor star Jake Pavelka and his fiancee Vienna Girardi dancing a Viennese Waltz to “On the Wings of Love” in tandem with Las Vegas’ Chelsie Hightower, Jake’s pro partner this season, and Dmitry Chaplin.

One hour into the show, the votes were cast, and Erin and Maks became the third-place couple and were eliminated. That left Nicole and Derek and Evan and Anna to dance for the big win as the scenario we and a lot of other followers laid out here from the very first week.

Erin applauds Maks, saying he put her life back together. They are asked to dance the cha cha as a way of saying goodbye, and it wraps with each kissing the other in a loving hug. That’s how romance rumors really run rampant!

Finally, Kate and Tony take the stage for their truly high-flying routine as part of their “Paparazzi” paso doble reprise. Maybe this is how she’ll escape the camera clickers in the future? It was sexy Moulin Rouge time for Pamela and her three male slaves stripped shirtless, with Niecy Nash and Louis Van Amstel adding their own “Bootylicious”!

After dozens of dances, worn-out limbs, weeks of rigorous rehearsals, body fatigue and frayed nerves, the last battle of the war arrived between Nicole and Evan. Everything is now on the line. Will it be perfect fancy footwork? Or will there be a last-minute slip into disaster?

Nicole and Derek again go first and dance the jive to “Proud Mary,” winning ultimate raves from all three judges who award them a perfect crowning 30, saying that they should be the winner. Hard for Evan and Anna to duplicate that score with their quickstep to “I Want You to Want Me,” and they grab 28 points from the judges.

But there’s still the unknown TV viewer vote to be added. Host Tom Bergeron calculates it all, and the final overall scoring is Nicole and Derek with 115 and Evan and Anna with 108.

In the end, it’s Nicole and Derek who claim the title of champion and the disco-ball trophy. Congratulations to our Las Vegas dance pro Derek and our Las Vegas regular Nicole on their triumphant win! Congrats also to Evan and Anna and Erin and Maks for making it to the finals. This is Derek’s second win -- he won Season 7 with Brooke Burke -- and joins two-time winners Julianne Hough, Cheryl Burke and Mark Ballas.

We’ll post the winners’ photo with the disco-ball trophy when it’s available, and don’t forget that we’ll have all the dance-floor action photos from the final show here at Vegas DeLuxe tomorrow morning.

Then it’s summertime, and Dancing With the Stars takes a break until Season 11 in the fall, which includes the return of Las Vegas’ Julianne. The moment we know who’ll be signed on for the next run, we’ll post that news.

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.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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