Dancing With The Stars' Season 34 Winners Robert Irwin and Witney Carson With Their Mirrorball TrophiesCredit: Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty
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Lorianne Palinkas
Published 19 minutes ago
Lorianne Palinkas has been a reality television writer for Screen Rant for four years. After teaching middle school English for twenty years, she knows a thing or two about high drama, complicated alliances, and even singing competitions. Growing up in New York City gave her a solid foundation in the arts and culture.
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Dancing With The Stars season 34 winner Robert Irwin had an impressive journey on the show, and now showrunner Conrad Green finally explains exactly how the champion is determined. Robert was paired with professional dancer Witney Carson, who'd previously won Dancing With The Stars season 19 in 2014 with her celebrity partner and current Dancing With The Stars host, Alfonso Ribeiro.
Robert and Witney placed first in the five-couple Dancing With The Stars season 34 finale, ahead of Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy who placed second; Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa, who placed third; Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach, who placed fourth; and Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten, who placed fifth.
Robert is a wildlife conservationist, who's following in the footsteps of his late father, Steve Irwin. Robert had dreamed of competing on Dancing With The Stars ever since his older sister, Bindi, won season 21 in 2015 with her professional dance partner and current judge, Derek Hough.
Although he had no professional dance training, Robert consistently dominated the leaderboard with his high and perfect scores from the judges, Derek, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli, along with various guest judges throughout the season. He also has a devoted fan following who voted for him every week.
Dancing With The Stars' Showrunner Explains Elimination System
The Judges' Scores & Viewer Votes Have A 50/50 Split
Dancing With The Stars' Robert Irwin and Witney Carson Dancing in the BallroomImage via Disney
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Green finally revealed exactly how the Dancing With The Stars elimination system works when it comes to how much weight the judges' scores hold versus the viewer votes. He said, "It’s 50/50, effectively." The couples are ranked in both categories, and those two scores are combined to determine who's sent home.
Green explained, "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, [fourth place,] two, [and fifth place,] one."
Green added, "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."
Robert Irwin's Path To Dancing With The Stars Victory
Robert Placed Second On The Judges' Leaderboard On Finale Night
Dancing With The Stars' Julianne Hough, Robert Irwin, and Witney Carson Looking ShockedCredit: Disney/Eric McCandless
During the Dancing With The Stars season 34 finale, Robert and Witney received a score of 29 for their first round Quickstep to "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet, and perfect scores of 30 for their Argentine Tango to "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics and their Freestyle to "Black & Gold" by Sam Sparro and "The Nights" by Avicii. This earned them a total score of 89 points for the night.
However, Alix and Val earned perfect scores for all of their dances during the Dancing With The Stars season 34 finale, earning a perfect score of 90. This means that they received five points, while Robert and Witney received four. Based on the information shared by Green, it appears that Robert earned more viewer votes than Alix because she would've won if she had the highest score in both categories.
Before the winner was announced, host Julianne Hough revealed that Alix and Robert each had individually earned more votes than anyone had ever received on the show, and that the gap between them was one of the tightest ever seen in a finale.
Robert achieved so much during Dancing With The Stars season 34, and his victory was well-deserved. He was a phenomenal dancer whose genuine personality won the hearts and votes of viewers. It was a joy to watch Robert on the show, and his victory was the perfect ending to the extraordinary 34th season of Dancing With The Stars.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
6.2/10
Dancing with the Stars
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Carrie Ann Inaba
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