Dancing With the Stars is gearing up to crown a new winner. But first, it’s time to celebrate the massive success of season 34.
Tuesday night’s finale was a star-studded affair, as the full cast returned to cheer on the top five finalists of Alix Earle, Dylan Efron, Elaine Hendrix, Jordan Chiles and Robert Irwin. For the first time in the show’s history, the remaining couples performed three separate new dances, including the judges’ choice, instant dance challenge and freestyle rounds.
Eliminated cast members Secret Lives of Mormon Wives stars Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt, author-influencer (and wife to Alec Baldwin) Hilaria Baldwin, retired NBA star Baron Davis, actor-musician Corey Feldman, Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel, Pentatonix’s Scott Hoying, Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui and comedian-actor Andy Richter all returned for the final episode of the season.
To celebrate the success of season 34, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with DWTS showrunner Conrad Green and casting director Deena Katz, where they dished on the secrets behind the series’ newfound virality. With a boost from social media and a savvy casting strategy, DWTS reached new heights this season and became a ratings dream for a veteran series.
Katz explained that “what has happened is the TikTok world has opened something up that I’ve never seen before, where we are so involved in the TikTok story every single week that there’s a whole new audience that needed to start watching our show to keep up with what was going on in social media.”
And Green also dished on the real weight of viewers votes versus judges score (“It’s 50/50, effectively”), which is how eliminations are ultimately decided on the show.
“When you see the judges’ leaderboards, say there’s five couples and you’re in first place on that leaderboard, you get five judges ranking points. If you’re in second place, you get four, if you’re in third place, you get three, [so on and so forth],” he explained. “We do the same with the amount of public votes. You add those two [separate] ranking points together, and the couple with the lowest combined total of those ranking points goes home. And if there’s a tie on those ranking points, the couple with the fewest public votes goes home.”
The couple with the lowest combined total of judges’ scores and viewer votes is eliminated at the end of each episode. Live voting takes place during the East Coast airing of each show and ends shortly after the final performance is completed.
See the full list of scores for the finale of DWTS season 34 — plus who was crowned the show’s new winner — below.
Judges Choice
Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy (30/30)
Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach (28/30)
Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten (30/30)
Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa (29/30)
Robert Irwin and Witney Carson (29/30)
Instant Dance Challenge
Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy (30/30)
Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach (30/30)
Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten (27/30)
Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa (30/30)
Robert Irwin and Witney Carson (30/30)
Freestyle
Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy (30/30)
Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach (30/30)
Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten (30/30)
Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa (30/30)
Robert Irwin and Witney Carson (30/30)
Final Results
Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy (2nd Place)
Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach (4th Place)
Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten (5th Place)
Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa (3rd Place)
Robert Irwin and Witney Carson (WINNER)
