Dancing With The Stars: Season 18 FINALE Predictions

Dancing_with_the_Stars_(U.S._season_18)

Tonight ends, arguably, the best season Dancing with the Stars has ever had. Candace Cameron Bure, Amy Purdy and Meryl Davis make up the final 3 after James Maslow’s elimination last night. All three have a great shot of winning, albeit for different reasons. Let’s go through their journey to the coveted mirror ball trophy and showcase their best dances. BA BA DA BA BA BA BA BA BA DA BA BA!

Candace Cameron Bure and Mark Ballas started off the show strong with one of their best dances, a fantastic contemporary routine. Unfortunately, the brilliance of her dancing ability quickly fell off the cliff that it was perched upon as she frequently froze up and forgot key elements of her dances, all while looking like a deer in the headlights. After an epiphany late in the competition, she delivered her, hands down, best performance doing a fantastic jazz routine (my favorite jazz ever on the show) to Janet Jackson’s “Nasty” (Is God okay with that? I feel like she prayed A LOT before that performance). She has a shot of winning tonight based on her huge voting fan base, since she’s beat the elimination every week, even though she has consistently been the lowest, and on her unofficial Most Improved award.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QOt7B0lizE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIY0qqtokdE

Amy Purdy and Derek Hough have improved throughout the competition as well, but her inspirational dances and ability have been bright every night in the ballroom. She has never had a huge fault throughout the past 10 weeks. Her only hiccup has been the back injury she occurred live a couple weeks back, hurting her enough to warrant her absence from a group routine (though, she still scored highly from the judges after watching the dress rehearsal tape). Both of her best performances have been contemporary-esque and very inspirational, one to Christina Perri’s “Human” and last night’s freestyle included some wicked cool aerial work that gives me goosebumps every time I watch it (which I have watched…often…and by often, I mean on repeat since last night). She could win based on the inspirational vote and how ridiculously good she is on the dance floor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6VFeHt_8BM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hiroFu0XFI

Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy have been the most consistent and, frankly, the best competitors this entire competition. Week after week she has bested herself, performing incredibly detailed, highly technical, and amazingly cinematic routine that have left the judges speechless and the audience at home amazed. Her best performances were her final two; an amazing tango and a gorgeous freestyle that had me hoping that Maks and Meryl make sweet, beautiful babies together. Cute, adorable babies that will grow up to be ballroom dancers. She has a shot of winning if any voter has a ounce of common sense in their brain. What Maks and Meryl have done as a pair has been incredible. Their chemistry is palpable and never has Maks excelled as a choreographer, or a person, in his entire history with the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-A0SU-NFZ8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB3jaD5tnjw

I am betting $20 worth of sequins that Meryl and Maks will win. They have been the strongest throughout the competition and have a bond that is amazing and something I have never seen in the ballroom. Never have I wanted the pair to win so badly, more than the star individually. Who are your rooting for? Let me know in the comments below or on the discussion boards and I will be back tomorrow with my finale recap!

Marshal Knight
Marshal Knight is a pop culture writer based in Orlando, FL. For some inexplicable reason, his most recent birthday party was themed to daytime television. He’d like to thank Sandra Oh.