All 34 ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Winners and Their Best Moments
It’s official, another season of Dancing With the Stars has come to an end, which means there’s one more star who joins the list of Mirrorball trophy winners from the show’s 20-year history!
During the 2025 finale on November 25, Robert Irwin was crowned the winner of Season 34, joining his sister, Bindi Irwin, and 32 other celebrities in an elite group of DWTS history.
Stars and their professional ballroom dance partners have been dazzling the dance floor since 2005 on Dancing With the Stars, and we’re looking back at all of the stars who have won the show over the years.
From the date they won the Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy and their best dances to their best costumes and more fun facts and stats, here’s a comprehensive history of every duo that’s won the American iteration of the competition. Scroll down to relive all of the winners and some of their most memorable moments in the competition!
Season 1: Kelly Monaco and Alec Mazo
Finale Date: July 6, 2005
Who’s the Star? Monaco is best known for playing Sam McCall, a mob boss’ daughter, on soap opera General Hospital from 2003 to 2024.
Star Dance Experience: None
Best Dance: Their freestyle in the season finale secured their win, as the pair spun and shimmied to Jennifer Lopez’s “Let’s Get Loud.” The energetic number earned all 10s from the three judges—and was the first perfect score of the series.
Best Costume: Monaco’s bright blue gown, worn for the freestyle in Week 6’s finals, was one of the first looks that would become a DWTS favorite: The long skirt was torn away by Mazo to reveal a flirty, fringed short skirt.
Biggest Oops: A strap on Monaco’s sparkly turquoise dress came undone while doing the samba in Week 4—but it helped her in the long run with the judges. “It was the first time she got out of her head,” judge Carrie Ann Inaba said.
Season 2: Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke
Finale Date: February 24, 2006
Who’s the Star? A member of boy band 98 Degrees, Drew is brother to fellow band member Nick Lachey (who became a contestant in Season 25).
Star Dance Experience: He’d performed choreography with 98 Degrees.
Best Dance: Fans and judges loved their groundbreaking country-flavored freestyle in the finale (inset) to “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy),” which judge Len Goodman called “Brilliant!” The dance became one of the most influential in the series’ history.
Best Costume: The pair looked particularly sleek in all black, with Lachey sporting a cap and spats while dancing the jive in Week 3.
Season 3: Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke
Finale Date: November 15, 2006
Who’s the Star? Former NFL running back Smith played professionally for the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals during his 15-year career. He took home three Super Bowl wins and still holds the career rushing yards record for the NFL.
Star Dance Experience: None, but his fast footwork on the gridiron helped!
How Many Pro Wins? This was Burke’s second (consecutive!) win, but also her last in her 26 seasons.
Best Dance: Smith and Burke announced their arrival with an amusing Week 1 cha-cha to “Son of a Preacher Man,” and their semi-finals version found them boogying to “Dance to the Music,” with Smith clearly having a ball out on the dance floor.
Best Costume: Smith’s balloon pants helped him show off his lightning-fast footwork in their Week 10 freestyle, while Burke’s barely there sparkling bikini top added a dose of sex appeal.
Season 4: Apolo Ohno and Julianne Hough
Finale Date: May 22, 2007
Who’s the Star? The first Olympic athlete to compete on DWTS, Ohno earned eight medals in short track speed skating over the course of his career, between 2002 and 2010.
Star Dance Experience: None. “I had no idea what I was in for,” he’s said, but he was used to difficult training.
Best Dance: Their paso doble, first performed in Week 8 and repeated in the finale, earned them top marks each time.
Best Costume: Ohno’s black and orange cape for the paso doble, which he whirled and with a quick snap turned into Hough’s skirt, was second only to his sharp black jacket emblazoned with a bull.
Did You Know? It took Ohno and Hough just five weeks to earn their first perfect 10s from all three judges with their samba to the energetic “I Like to Move It.”
Season 5: Hélio Castroneves and Julianne Hough
Finale Date: November 27, 2007
Who’s the Star? Brazilian race car driver Castroneves has won the Indianapolis 500 an impressive four times.
Star Dance Experience: None
How Many Pro Wins? This was Hough’s second consecutive win in her five seasons.
Best Dance: Their Week 8 quickstep performed to “Hey Pachuco!” earned them perfect 10s.
Best Costume: The pair’s black and white racing gear that tore away to reveal gold spangled dance costumes for their freestyle dance in the finale.
Season 6: Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas
Finale Date: May 20, 2008
Who’s the Star? Yamaguchi won the 1992 ladies’ singles figure skating gold medal.
Star Dance Experience: A lot, actually. Dance, especially ballet, is a regular aspect of a figure skater’s training.
Best Dance: Their Week 6 high-energy jive to Little Richard’s “Rip It Up” put Yamaguchi’s footwork on full display and earned the duo their first set of straight 10s.
Best Costume: Yamaguchi’s blazing yellow and red flapper-style dress topped with a canary yellow feathered headdress electrified their Week 8 samba to the Gipsy Kings’ “Volare.”
Did You Know? The show marked its 100th episode on May 6, 2008.
Season 7: Brooke Burke and Derek Hough
Finale Date: November 25, 2008
Who’s the Star? A former Playboy model and actress, by the time she joined DWTS, Burke had hosted the long-running travel reality show Wild On! for E! as well as CBS’s talent show Rock Star.
Star Dance Experience: None
Best Dance: Burke and Hough’s elegant foxtrot during Week 7 earned them their first perfect score—and saw them gliding back to the top
of the leaderboard.
Best Costume: Burke’s fun and flirty tangerine dress for the mambo got the judges’ attention as she shook her groove thing to “Cuban Mambo.”
Fun Fact: Burke and Hough held the top spot on the leaderboard eight times, a feat that at the time had only been done once before by last season’s winners.
Season 8: Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas
Finale Date: May 19, 2009
Who’s the Star? Another Olympic medalist, gymnast Johnson earned gold in 2008 on the balance beam and silver in the floor exercise. She and her teammates also won silver the same year in the team and all-around competitions.
Star Dance: Experience Extensive, as gymnasts also study dance as part of their training.
How Many Pro Wins? Ballas won three times in his 20 seasons as a pro.
Best Dance: The pair played up the drama as they strutted to their first perfect 10s with their Argentine tango in the Week 10 semifinals.
Best Costume: Johnson’s paso doble long black glittery gown was lined with red satin in Week 9, leaning into the matador theme.
Fun Fact: When she competed on DWTS, Johnson was the youngest contestant to date at age 17.
Season 9: Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson
Finale Date November 24, 2009
Who’s the Star? From 1970s teen idol and TV variety show host to Broadway and beyond, Osmond is an entertainment icon.
Star Dance Experience: Some. Osmond learned choreographed steps for performing with The Osmonds, and then later for the Donny & Marie show.
Best Dance: With their Argentine tango, Osmond and Johnson were just one point shy (thanks to Goodman) of a perfect 30, but their Broadway-inspired freestyle in the finale got them the perfect score they were aiming for.
Best Costume: The 1980s-inspired bolero jacket, silver-gray slacks and his mullet ’do had Osmond channeling Adam Ant–like rock ’ n’ roll glam for the paso doble in Week 8.
Did You Know? Osmond joked that he “beat Marie” with his win. His sister Marie had been on the fifth season and was eliminated in the finale.
Season 10: Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough
Finale Date: May 25, 2010
Who’s the Star? Scherzinger was best known at the time for being a member of girl group the Pussycat Dolls. She’s stayed on her toes: She is a recent Tony winner for her starring role as Norma Desmond in Broadway’s Sunset Blvd.
Star Dance Experience: Scherzinger started performing as a child and minored in dance in college, so she knew her way around the dance floor.
How Many Pro Wins? It was Hough’s second of six wins over his 17 seasons.
Best Dance: Their tango in Week 5 was good, but the Argentine tango that they danced in the Week 9 semifinals and again on night two of the finale was so steamy and intense that viewers awarded them the Mirrorball trophy.
Best Costume: Scherzinger’s transformation (with some help from Hough) from black satin outerwear to a flowing red gown à la Julia Roberts’ iconic Pretty Woman dress for their Week 5 tango was a fun, nostalgic knockout!
Season 11: Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough
Finale Date November 23, 2010
Who’s the Star? Grey shot to fame as the super-annoyed sister of Matthew Broderick in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but her role the following year in Dirty Dancing made her a certified star.
Star Dance Experience: Nobody puts Baby in a corner! Grey learned how to mambo—and more—with Patrick Swayze in the 1987 hit film.
Best Dance: Their Dirty Dancing–themed freestyle was a fan favorite, but their instant rumba in Week 8, to Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” earned them their first perfect 30 and showed off Grey’s impressive ability to do a split.
Best Costume: For their Week 3 story-themed samba, Hough was a naughty, sweater-vested schoolboy and Grey his sexy teacher in fringy black pants topped by a sharp white shirt with a revealing open back.
Heart-Tugging Moment: In her first rehearsal with Hough, Grey got emotional over memories of Swayze, who had died of cancer the year before.
Season 12: Hines Ward and Kym Johnson
Finale Date: May 24, 2011
Who’s the Star? The Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver and MVP of Super Bowl XL retired from the NFL the year following his DWTS win. He’s now the wide receivers coach for Arizona State’s Sun Devils.
Star Dance Experience: None, but like fellow footballer Emmitt Smith before him, Ward was able to successfully shift his footwork from the gridiron to the dance floor.
Best Dance: Their semifinal salsa was as spicy as it was colorful, earning them their second set of perfect 10s.
Best Costume: In their Week 4 paso doble, Ward danced bare-chested beneath a bolero jacket with gold epaulets, channeling The King and I during Classical Week.
Biggest Oops: As the pair tried out a complicated lift in the Week 9 rehearsal, the attempt went wrong and Ward fell on Johnson, injuring her neck. She rallied in time for their next dance.
Season 13: J.R. Martinez and Karina Smirnoff
Finale Date November 22, 2011
Who’s the Star? A former U.S. Army soldier who was severely burned during a 2003 tour in Iraq, Martinez survived and later went on to become a motivational speaker and actor on the daytime soap opera All My Children.
Star Dance Experience: None. “I never thought dancing would be this hardcore,” he said on Good Morning America.
Best Dance: The pair soared in Week 8, earning two perfect scores in a row for their waltz and the instant jive. Of the two, the instant jive brought the house down, and Martinez looked as though he’d never had so much fun.
Best Costume: To the iconic notes of Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther Theme,” Martinez tiptoed onstage in a hot pink suit with tails, a ruffled shirt and a top hat trimmed in fuchsia in Week 4 to dance a captivating foxtrot.
Season 14: Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd
Finale Date: May 22, 2012
Who’s the Star? A former Super Bowl–winning wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, Driver was the third NFL player to win DWTS.
Star Dance Experience: None.
How Many Pro Wins? This was the first of two wins for Murgatroyd.
Best Dance: Their finale cha-cha sizzled—and not only because Driver danced it shirtless. Their sharp moves captured straight 10s, a prize that had eluded them all season until their freestyle the night before.
Best Costume: Copper brocade tails with red lapels for the Viennese waltz.
Did You Know? Driver said he was a fan who had watched the competition series since the first season.
Season 15: Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani
Finale Date: November 27, 2012
Who’s the Star? A former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader who’d also appeared on The Bachelor, Rycroft had narrowly lost the Mirrorball trophy to Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson in Season 8.
Star Dance Experience: Rycroft had been studying dance since childhood and spent two years dancing as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
How Many Pro Wins? This was Dovolani’s only win in his 21 seasons as a pro.
Best Dance: Their Week 9 Argentine tango to Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana” was filled with complicated lifts and showed off Rycroft’s endless legs.
Best Costume: The green and white jitterbug costumes in Week 4 recalled a 1950s soda fountain, complete with caps and Rycroft in Keds. It was adorable.
Season 16: Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough
Finale: Date May 21, 2013
Who’s the Star? Pickler had finished in sixth place on Season 5 of American Idol in 2006, which launched her country music career.
Star Dance: Experience Although she was a cheerleader in high school, Pickler had no formal dance training.
Best Dance: Finally earning a score of perfect 10s during Week 9, Pickler and Hough danced an Argentine tango that was sharp, sexy and a real crowd-pleaser.
Best Costume: Pickler’s red, white and pink getup during Week 7’s Latin Night (above) for a routine to “Shake Your Bon-Bon” by Ricky Martin—alongside a shirtless Hough—was a perfect choice for the samba, with its flirty short skirt and frilled bikini top.
Season 17: Amber Riley and Derek Hough
Finale Date November 26, 2013
Who’s the Star? A singer and actress, Riley was best known for portraying high school diva Mercedes Jones on Fox’s musical comedy-drama series Glee from 2009 to 2015.
Star Dance Experience: Not a lot, other than the choreographed numbers on Glee.
Best Dance: Although they earned their first perfect scores with the Viennese waltz the week prior, Riley and Hough’s Charleston was their strongest dance. It put them over the top in the first night of the finale—and was even more fun to watch!
Best Costume: Riley’s Week 3 Charleston outfit, a 1920s flapper black dress with sparkling silver fringe and matching headband, captured the aura of the dance.
Most Fun: Riley and Hough danced their Week 5 foxtrot to the Glee cast’s recording of “Try a Little Tenderness,” which featured Riley on lead vocals.
Season 18: Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Finale Date: May 20, 2014
Who’s the Star? A competitive ice dancer, Davis won the 2014 Olympic gold medal with her partner Charlie White (who also appeared this season on DWTS); the pair also won the silver in the 2010 games.
Star Dance Experience: Lots! She’s an ice dancer. She began skating at age 5.
Did You Know? Davis lacks depth perception in her right eye, which she also has trouble seeing from—but she never let it slow her down.
How Many Pro Wins? This is Chmerkovskiy’s only win in his 17 seasons as a pro.
Best Dance: Their Argentine tango in the finale earned them a perfect score, with judge Bruno Tonioli calling it “sumptuously seductive.”
Best Costume: Their tango was a winner in more ways than one. Davis’ sexy, shimmering red wide-legged pants topped by a long corset (above) was designed by Randall Christensen, who also created her Olympic looks.
Season 19: Alfonso Ribeiro and Witney Carson
Finale Date: November 25, 2014
Who’s the Star? Before rising to fame as Carlton Banks on NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990s, Ribeiro had starred on Broadway in his youth in The Tap Dance Kid.
Star Dance Experience: Having come from a musical family—his aunt was a dancer on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In—he began his career as a dancer.
Where Is He Now? Still on the ballroom floor! Ribeiro not only took over as host of America’s Funniest Home Videos from Dancing With the Stars’ longtime host Tom Bergeron in 2015, but he also became cohost of DWTS in 2022.
How Many Pro Wins? Of Carson’s 13 seasons, this is her only win.
Best Dance: They excelled at the jive, earning straight 9s in Week 1, but their freestyle in the finales let both Ribeiro and Carson show off their tap dance skills.
Best Costume: After making his entrance on a zip line to the dance floor in a Batman-inspired suit and cape, Ribeiro sailed through the cha-cha in superheroic style.
Season 20: Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovskiy
Finale Date: May 19, 2015
Who’s the Star? Willis is an actress and singer and the daughter of superstars Demi Moore and Bruce Willis.
Star Dance Experience: None.
Best Dance: Their Week 8 rumba, a dance that was chosen by viewers for them, was electric, precise and steamy, earning them straight 10s across the board. “It was so stylish and elegant,” said Tonioli. “Signore Giorgio Armani would have designed it himself if he could have.”
Best Costume: For their entrance foxtrot in Week 1 to Hozier hit “Take Me to Church,” Willis was the ultimate in elegance in a blush gown with a bejeweled, impossibly low-cut bodice.
Season 21: Bindi Irwin and Derek Hough
Finale Date: November 24, 2015
Who’s the Star? The daughter of the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, Bindi grew up in front of the cameras, promoting conservation and even starring in Discovery Family’s Bindi the Jungle Girl.
Star Dance Experience: None.
How Many Pro Wins? This marked Hough’s sixth and final win in 17 seasons. He now serves as a judge on the series.
Best Dance: The audience and judges were cheering “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” for Hough and Irwin’s Week 6 rumba that perfectly reenacted Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze’s final dance in the movie Dirty Dancing—and yes, they did the lift!
Best Costume: Irwin’s long skirt and kerchief headband for the Week 3 TV Night quickstep evoked the 1960s, as well as The Jeffersons theme song “Movin’ On Up.”
Emotional Moment: Irwin delivered a heartfelt tribute to her dad in Week 4 and broke down in tears during rehearsal when Hough asked her to hold one of his fingers, as she had done with her dad. Their contemporary dance to “Every Breath You Take” earned them their first 10.
Season 22: Nyle DiMarco and Peta Murgatroyd
Finale Date: May 24, 2016
Who’s the Star? DiMarco is a model, actor and deaf activist who had appeared on the TV series Switched at Birth and had won America’s Next Top Model in 2015.
Star Dance Experience: None. The first time he ever danced was on the show.
Best Dance: They did score perfect 10s for their Argentine tango in the semifinals, but their contemporary freestyle to “The Sound of Silence” was dramatic, poignant and highlighted by a burning piano onstage! “Our dance together is for millions of deaf people,” DiMarco said.
Best Costume: Disney Night’s samba in Week 4 found DiMarco in a caveman wig and not much else—while Murgatroyd’s costume echoed Raquel Welch’s famed sexy cave girl from 1966’s One Million Years B.C.
Did You Know? Murgatroyd and DiMarco developed quick signals and tricks—a squeeze, a scratch on the back—to help guide him through the dances, since he couldn’t hear the music. He’s one of 25 people in his family who are deaf due to a genetic disorder.
Biggest Oops: The scores are submitted to the producers before the critiques are given on camera, and Tonioli twice submitted a 9 score for DiMarco and Murgatroyd, but then held up a 10 paddle!
Season 23: Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy
Finale: Date November 22, 2016
Who’s the Star? Another Olympian, Hernandez won silver on the balance beam and was a member of the women’s gymnastics team that won gold in 2016.
Star Dance Experience: She took ballet lessons when she was 4 and switched her focus to gymnastics a year later.
Best Dance: Their super fun Week 4 jazz routine, to Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel,” made liberal use of a prop park bench. After, judge Inaba proclaimed, “A star is born!”
Best Costumes: Hernandez and Chmerkovskiy danced to the theme song from DuckTales for their TV Night Week 2 jive, and her flirty, gauzy short red dress along with his bright blue suit jacket, white pants and top hat brought Disney’s animated television series to vivid life.
Season 24: Rashad Jennings and Emma Slater
Finale Date: May 23, 2017
Who’s the Star? Jennings was an NFL running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders and New York Giants.
Star Dance Experience: None.
How Many Pro Wins? This is Slater’s only win.
Best Dance: Drawing on the pain of a former breakup, Jennings’ Viennese waltz in the first night of the finals finally tipped him and Slater over the top, earning them a perfect score of 40. Said Tonioli: “You really have become the polished diamond that everyone was expecting.”
Best Costume: The pair’s sparkly, multicolored looks—Rashad wore bright turquoise sneakers with pink laces—electrified the crowd (and the judges, who gave them perfect scores) for their freestyle in the finals.
Season 25: Jordan Fisher and Lindsay Arnold
Finale: Date November 21, 2017
Who’s the Star? A former Disney Channel actor, Fisher was quickly garnering fame after a run in Hamilton on Broadway as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton. He recently played the lead in Moulin Rouge!
Star Dance Experience: Fisher started in musical theater as a child, so he had a rich dancing background, which may have given him a leg up.
How Many Pro Wins? This is Arnold’s only win in 10 seasons as a pro on the show.
Best Dance: Their Week 9 lightning-fast jive—an attempt to top the version danced in Season 22 by Mark Ballas and Paige VanZant. It featured a crowd-pleasing tear-away costume change to sparkling gold. That, and their fabulous footwork awed the judges and paved the way for their next two weeks of perfect scores and the Mirrorball win.
Best Costume: Their Week 3 Guilty Pleasures night celebrated comic books and superheroes and was red and blue fun as they showed off their Charleston.
Season 26: Adam Rippon and Jenna Johnson
Finale Date: May 21, 2018
Who’s the Star? Rippon was a member of the 2018 Olympic bronze medal–winning U.S. figure skating team, as well as the first openly gay American winter Olympian.
Star Dance Experience: He began skating at age 10 but had little dance experience.
Best Dance: Their Week 3 contemporary dance to Coldplay’s “O” found them captivating the judges and the audience as they danced a balletic interpretation of the song inside a cagelike structure while wearing feathered costumes.
Best Costume: Rippon’s Week 2 red and black geometrically patterned suit showed off the dancing duo’s quickstep to perfection.
Did You Know? Season 26 featured an all-athletes lineup, including former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding and MLB outfielder Johnny Damon. It was also the shortest season ever, lasting just four weeks, with two couples voted off each week. Talkabout competition!
Season 27: Bobby Bones and Sharna Burgess
Finale Date: November 19, 2018
Who’s the Star? A radio personality based in Nashville, Bones hosts The Bobby Bones Show.
Star Dance Experience: None.
How Many Pro Wins? This is Burgess’ only win in 14 seasons.
Best Dance: Their freestyle to “The Greatest Show” earned surprise perfect scores after weeks of fairly mediocre numbers. But with Bones admitting he was “still clueless” after three months on the show, Goodman told him, “You’ve always been the people’s champion. And tonight, you’ve become my champion.” Their finale win was one of the show’s biggest-ever upsets.
Best Costume: Bones and Burgess’ midnight blue velvet-style tails and dress were bedazzled with sparkling rhinestones and helped them shine during the quickstep.
Season 28: Hannah Brown and Alan Bersten
Finale Date: November 25, 2019
Who’s the Star? A former Miss Alabama, Brown had recently starred on The Bachelorette for Season 15 of ABC’s hit reality series—but didn’t wind up hitched.
Star Dance Experience: None.
How Many Pro Wins? This was Bersten’s only win in nine seasons as a pro.
Best Dance: Brown and Bersten’s quickstep during Week 8 earned them a near-perfect score of 29. “That was a game-changer,” Tonioli told them. “Your action through the feet was just beautiful!”
Best Costume: Brown’s dramatic black dress for their Week 4 paso doble featured a sheer top and long satiny skirt that left her legs free in the front to show off her sharp steps.
Season 29: Kaitlyn Bristowe and Artem Chigvintsev
Finale Date: November 23, 2020
Who’s the Star? Like Brown before her, Bristowe had appeared as a contestant on ABC’s The Bachelor and later as the central figure on The Bachelorette.
Star Dance: Experience Bristowe is the daughter of a ballerina and had been a cheerleader in the Canadian Football League.
How Many Pro Wins? Just this one in his 12 seasons in the ballroom.
Best Dance: Their Argentine tango to Britney Spears’ “Toxic” pushed them over the top, earning perfect 10s from the judges and a standing ovation from Inaba.
Best Costume: The pair went all-in on the Spanish flair for Week 10’s paso doble, with Bristowe in a jeweled red bodice and ruffled, multitiered flamenco skirt and Chigvintsev going full matador.
Season 30: Iman Shumpert and Daniella Karagach
Finale Date: November 22, 2021
Who’s the Star? The first NBA player to win DWTS, Shumpert was a shooting guard who played for the Cleveland Cavaliers when they won their first NBA championship in 2016.
Star Dance Experience: None, but his wife at the time, Teyana Taylor, is a dancer who has choreographed for pop superstar Beyoncé.
How Many Pro Wins? This was Karagach’s only win in five seasons.
Best Dance: Shumpert proved scary-good during the pair’s contemporary dance in Week 6 for their Horror Night routine, inspired by the 2019 fright film Us. Inaba called it “genius.”
Best Costume: Their red pajama-like pantsuits with silver zipper accents added to the creep factor of the pair’s extraordinary and winning contemporary dance to “I Got 5 on It” during Horror Night.
Season 31: Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas
Finale Date: November 21, 2022
Who’s the Star? D’Amelio is a social media influencer and competitive dancer who at one time was the most followed content creator on TikTok. Her family was the focus of Hulu’s 2021–23 reality series The D’Amelio Show.
Star Dance Experience: Tons! She started dancing around age 3 and was a competitive dancer who studied ballet, hip-hop and tap.
How Many Pro Wins? This was Ballas’ third win over 20 seasons.
Best Dance: D’Amelio and Ballas’ Viennese waltz to Joji’s “Glimpse of Us” was so fluid, elegant and achingly beautiful that even Goodman said, “That was so good it literally took my breath away.”
Best Costume: While their full Marge and Homer Simpson getups—complete with yellow paint and Marge’s towering blue hair—for Disney+ night was memorable, the elegance of D’Amelio’s white dress with a sheer long white skirt for their Week 9 Viennese waltz added to the soaring vision of their perfect-score dance.
Season 32: Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy
Finale Date: December 5, 2023
Who’s the Star? Gomez is an actress who appeared on the Disney Channel sitcom Raven’s Home and on the big screen in Marvel’s 2022 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Star Dance Experience: She began studying and performing in musical theater at the age of 5 but is not a trained dancer.
Best Dance: The pair truly shined in the Week 10 semifinals first with their high-energy samba, but especially with a lovely waltz to Lady Gaga’s “La Vie en Rose.” Judge Derek Hough teared up, saying, “Len would have loved that dance,” referring to the longtime judge who died
in April 2023 of cancer.
Best Costume: Gomez leaned into her Mexican heritage for Week 4’s Disney 100 Night paso doble, channeling the 2017 Disney Pixar film Coco with a bright yellow skirt, blue top and flowered headdress. Chmerkovskiy matched her in his black mariachi suit.
Season 33: Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson
Finale Date: November 26, 2024
Who’s the Star? Graziadei, a teaching tennis professional, was the runner-up on the 2023 season of The Bachelorette and then was The Bachelor in 2024.
Star Dance Experience: None.
Best Dance: Inaba drew boos from the upset crowd when she rated their Week 10 finale freestyle a 9, but Hough raved, “Joey, that was phenomenal!” And Tonioli praised the pair’s inventive choreography, which incorporated light-up tennis rackets, Busby Berkeley elements and ballroom steps. “Hollywood and tennis perfectly combined,” he said.
Best Costume: Their Metal Night tango ensembles, which included a sharp black suit emblazoned with flames on the sleeves and legs that matched Johnson’s red-hot dress. Graziadei’s full metal-head wig only added to the fun.
Season 34: Robert Irwin and Witney Carson
Finale Date: November 25, 2025
Who’s the Star? A wildlife conservationist and younger brother of Season 21 winner Bindi Irwin.
Star Dance Experience: None
Best Dance: Irwin had plenty of amazing dances, but the most buzzed-about was his Week 5 contemporary routine to Phil Collins’ “You’ll Be in My Heart,” which he dedicated to his mom, Terri Irwin, who also joined him on the dance floor at the end of the routine.
Best Costume: Perhaps lack of costume is the better term here, as Irwin ripping off his shirt during his Week 3 salsa was definitely a highlight.
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