Rashad Jennings runs away with mirrorball trophy
Rashad Jennings finally has a championship to call his own. The football player, who said last week he’d never won anything, was crowned “Dancing With the Stars” Season 24 champion during Tuesday’s finale. The winner was determined via audience votes and judges’ scores from the past two weeks. Former pro baseball player David Ross somehow finished in second place.
Normani Kordei, the Fifth Harmony member who moved to Pearland from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, took third place.
It was a shock to many. The audience gasped when Kordei was eliminated, and head judge Len Goodman shook his head.
The faces of her Fifth Harmony groupmates said it all.
Kordei was the most consistent dancer of the season, and judge Carrie Ann Inbaba said she was “born to win this competition.”
“I’m so grateful. I’ve gained so much more from this experience,” Kordei said.
Val Chmerkivskiy, Kordei’s partner, called her “one of the best female ballroom dancers this competition has ever seen.”
Kordei earned a total of 118 out of a possible 120 points for her finale performances. Jennings’ total was 119. Ross trailed behind with 109.
Kordei’s final dance, an Argentine tango/fox trot fusion, earned a perfect 40 from the judges. Julianne Hough called it “flawless.”
The expectedly bloated finale — two-and-ahalf-hours! — featured performances by Lady Antebellum, Hailee Steinfeld, OneRepublic and TLC.
Olympic champion and Houston native Simone Biles reprised her contemporary routine set to “Moana” theme song “How Far I’ll Go.”