With a season full of surprises and shocking eliminations, it's no mystery that Tuesday's finale of Dancing with the Stars was a nail-biter, right down to the last remaining minutes of the telecast.
As consistently low-scoring Bristol Palin advanced ahead of stronger dancers like Audrina Patridge and Brandy, fans and the media argued about whether Dancing had lost its credibility.
Palin held her own on Monday night's performance show against the season's most dynamic performer, actress Jennifer Grey, and charismatic actor Kyle Massey. Still, Palin received the lowest scores.
Did Palin's fans vote in droves to ensure she takes the Season 11 mirror-ball trophy home to Alaska? Or did America truly vote for the best dancer – which, depending on whom you ask, is either Grey or Massey?
It's Jennifer Grey!
The audience cheered and the actress broke into tears as her professional partner, Derek Hough, jumped up and and down. This is the third win for Hough, who also had victories with Nicole Scherzinger and Brooke Burke.
Grey, 50, endured health problems throughout the competition and on Tuesday night danced through pain from a slipped disc.
Massey, 19, came in second place, and Palin's amazing run ended. The 20-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin had a third-place finish.
Kyle Massey wooed the Dancing With the Stars judges during the semifinals, but was it enough? Or did Bristol Palin's amazing run finally end?
And did Brandy's fall to the bottom two send her packing? Or is Jennifer Grey going to be the latest surprise elimination on Tuesday night?
It's another ballroom shocker: Brandy was sent packing.
Members of the audience 
gasped and some booed at hearing the results, but the R&B star's pro partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, took the high road.
"People vote and their voices count," he said. "I don't regret a second ... of being on this season. It's been an amazing journey."
Moving to the finals are Massey, Grey and Palin.
It was the second double-elimination in a row as former NFL star Michael Irvin and Iron Chef America host Mark Dacascos were eliminated Tuesday night on Dancing with the Stars.
Irvin, who improved his dance scores each week, says the voters kept him and his partner Anna Demidova in the game for seven weeks.
“We have great love out here,” Irvin said after the show. “The voters kept us in. We were scoring 13s and 14s. That makes you feel great!”
Unfortunately, he scored the lowest among the seven couples Monday night and didn’t have a chance to compete in the dance-off, which featured Dacascos and pop star Aaron Carter. The judges raved about both performances, but in the end, the judges preferred Carter’s jive to Dacascos’s cha cha.
“Would I trade the experience? Heck, no!” says Dacascos. “It was one of the best professional experiences I’ve had in my life!”
It was a tough week for the TV host. His partner Lacey Schwimmer caught the flu last week and was unable to perform Monday night. Instead, he rehearsed once with Tony Dovolani and then performed with Anna Trebunskaya. Still feeling sick, Schwimmer said she couldn’t stay away for elimination night.
“I probably shouldn’t have come here today and danced but I begged to be here,” Schwimmer said. “There was no way I was going to let him leave on a sour note. We danced one last time.”
With only five couples left competing for the mirror ball trophy, the celebs and dancers say they have formed a bond that makes it hard to say goodbye.
“I’m happy I met her,” Irvin says about his partner Demidova. “I’ll miss her more than anything.”
Ballroom may not have been her “calling,” and her Viennese waltz was more bizarre than beautiful, but ousted Dancing with the Stars Macy Gray did manage to make a few fans along the way off the parquet.
“I think Macy should have stayed around,” pro Lacey Schwimmer said at the Surrogates world premiere in Hollywood on Thursday. “I thought that she was a breath of fresh air for the show. She was the new and improved Cloris Leachman.”
Fans, especially Dancing with the Stars purists, may not see comparisons to the dance-challenged Leachman as the highest form of praise, but then again, Schwimmer has always been one that has “danced” outside of the ballroom box.
“Cloris was entertaining beyond belief,” she said, “and I feel like Macy Gray had that potential to be that entertaining thing for the show.”
With the immensely colorful Grammy winner gone, the question now is, who will step up and carry the Leachman torch for the rest of the season?
“Tom Delay,” Schwimmer said without hesitating. “Backstage he’s hilarious and a lot of people don’t get to see that side of him.”
As for the more pressing needs of her own partner, Iron Chef America host Mark Dacascos, Lacey’s lesson plan is a bluntly simple one: “Hurry up and get the choreography!” Though the duo placed third on the men’s side, Schwimmer feels far from safe and no closer to a disco ball on her mantel.
“He’s the cutest thing in the entire world,” she said, catching a quick breath before listing her partner’s Dancing with the Stars flaws. “But he’s such a slow learner! The main problem is, he’s never really preformed before. You have to entertain the audience and then entertain through a camera to millions of people … Mark needs to smile and breathe.”
With a season full of surprises and shocking eliminations, it's no mystery that Tuesday's finale of Dancing with the Stars was a nail-biter, right down to the last remaining minutes of the telecast.
Palin held her own on Monday night's performance show against the season's most dynamic performer, actress Jennifer Grey, and charismatic actor Kyle Massey. Still, Palin received the lowest scores.
