November 27, 2024
Eric McCandless/Disney
'Bachelor' star Joey Graziadei and his pro partner Jenna Johnson won Season 33 of 'Dancing with the Stars.'
Joey Graziadei left it all on the dance floor during the Season 33 finale of "Dancing with the Stars" on Tuesday, and it was enough to earn him the coveted Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
The Montgomery County native — who became the first former "Bachelor" lead to make it to the "DWTS" finale — and his professional dance partner Jenna Johnson won the reality competition through a combination of fan voting and judges' scores. After showing off his talents in a variety of ballroom dancing styles throughout this season of "DWTS," Graziadei sealed the deal in the finale with a cha cha and tennis-themed freestyle. "DWTS" also announced Tuesday that the winning pair would be joining select cities on the 2025 live tour, including Philadelphia.
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"It means everything," Graziadei said after being handed the Mirrorball Trophy. "This whole experience has been unbelievable honestly."
More spoilers are ahead if you haven't yet watched Tuesday's episode, which can be streamed on Disney+ or Hulu.
In the finale, Graziadei faced actress Chandler Kinney, Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher, former NFL player Danny Amendola and Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik. Going into the episode, Graziadei was tied with Kinney for the top spot on the leaderboard — since scores carried over from last week's semifinals.
The first round of finale performances was a "redemption" round in which the judges — Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough — assigned competitors a style of dance that they did not excel in earlier in the season. Graziadei was assigned the cha cha, which Hough said had lacked finesse and precision when he performed it Week 1.
Graziadei and Johnson performed an upbeat cha cha to "Can't Stop the Feeling!" by Justin Timberlake, and thoroughly redeemed themselves by earning a perfect score from the judges.
The episode also included behind-the-scenes footage from the stars' final practices with their pros. In one clip, Graziadei, who formed a close friendship with Johnson throughout the season, expressed what the partnership meant to him and how he wanted to bring home the win for her.
"I could not have done this with anyone else; I know I couldn't have," Graziadei said.
Entering the final, freestyle round, Graziadei was still tied in first place with Kinney. The finale freestyle dances allow the celebrities and their pro partners to show off their skills and personalities however they want with elaborate dance numbers. Before his runs on "The Bachelorette" and "The Bachelor," Graziadei played tennis at West Chester University and subsequently worked as a tennis instructor in Hawaii. He paid homage to his past lives with an energetic tennis-themed freestyle to "Canned Heat" by District 78 featuring Jake Simpson, complete with backup dancers and light-up rackets.
While the crowd loved Graziadei's performance, one judge in particular was surprisingly less than impressed. In a freestyle round that featured dances with Olympic-level gymnastics and "Barbie" movie references, Inaba said she found Graziadei's dance "just a tad underwhelming." Graziadei's fiancee, Kelsey Anderson, could be seen in the crowd booing Inaba's comments. Graziadei received a 29 out of 30 from the judges for his final dance.
As far as judges' scores go, Graziadei ended the night in second place just one point behind Kinney. But, the passion of Bachelor Nation as well as the many new fans Graziadei accumulated through "DWTS" rallied behind him to boost him to No. 1.
The full results saw Amendola in fifth place, Nedoroscik in fourth, Kinney in third, Maher in second and Graziadei in first place, hoisting the Mirrorball Trophy.
"I feel like Jenna deserved this fully and this is all for her," Graziadei said of his partner. He also told runner-up Maher she's been "amazing" this season.
Graziadei's dancing career will continue this winter as a special guest at some stops on the "Dancing with the Stars Live" 2025 tour, including the performance at the Met Philadelphia on Sunday, Jan. 26. The tour also stops at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City on Saturday, Jan. 18. The tour will feature Nedoroscik — a Penn State alum who became known as the Clark Kent of the U.S. men's gymnastics team for his pommel horse performance at the Paris Olympics — as a co-host at each stop.
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