Jennifer Grey was named the new “Dancing With the Stars” champ, despite painful neck and back injuries and a voting bloc for Bristol Palin.

The 50-year-old actress, whose performances were almost always flawless during the season, beat out last-place finisher Palin Tuesday on the hit ABC show and actor Kyle Massey, who came in second.

Grey and professional partner Derek Hough earned a string of perfect scores on their way to the mirrorball trophy. The couple consistently topped the judges’ leaderboard throughout the season, but Palin’s cadre of voter support led to some surprising upsets, including Brandy’s elimination after earning a perfect score last week.

Palin’s improbable run to the finals had been championed by some conservative bloggers running get-out-the-vote campaigns. She came into the season finale in last place and said she was leaving her fate to the voters.

“Going out there and winning this would mean a lot. It would be like a big middle finger to all the people out there that hate my mom and hate me,” Sarah Palin’s daughter said during Tuesday’s show, which featured a reunion of the season’s cast members and performances from Christina Aguilera.

Grey went into Tuesday’s telecast in first place and effortlessly remained there.

Palin made it to the finals despite mediocre and at times poor performances. She said it was challenging to overcome the flurry of media coverage that erupted when she was voted in over Brandy — who had received a perfect score for her tango — on the hit show, prompting some viewers to question the veracity of the “Dancing” voting system.

“Dancing” producers said Tuesday that “a record amount of activity” overloaded its online and telephone voting systems after Monday’s episode.

“Some viewers reported experiencing difficulties registering their votes for the ‘Dancing With the Stars’ finale, which affected each finalist equally,” show producers said in a statement. “The issue was promptly addressed” and voting times were not extended.

The judges had the final say Tuesday, when each of the three finalists performed two last dances for judges’ scores. Viewer votes counted for half of each competitor’s overall total.

The season’s contestants got to perform one last number, with Brandy receiving a standing ovation for her two-step.

Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7309161.html

Monday Night’s Dancing With The Stars wasn’t too surprising at all. Jennifer Grey was fantastic, Kyle Massey was cute and Bristol Palin tried her best.

Jennifer Grey emerged from the finale performance show with perfect 10s across the board for both of her dances. Her paso doble was so good Bruno Tonioli said he wished he could give her an 11, not just a 10. Obviously, she is in the lead with a score of 60.

In 2nd: Kyle Massey. His freestyle hip hop dance landed him a 29. “I dub you the Fresh Prince of Dancing With The Stars,” stated Carrie Ann Inaba.

And coming in last place: Bristol Palin, with 52. She started off her free style dance in a cage, which impressed Carrie Ann, but not enough to boost her scores. In a taped rehearsal segment, we saw Bristol tell her pro partner Mark Ballas: “I already feel defeated.” Why? “There’s lots of haters out there just waiting for me to fail.”

So what do you think will happen? Will voters lift Bristol once again over her low scores?

Go Vote now! http://cdn.abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars/vote

Brandy’s Dancing with the Stars elmination was nothing short of shocking last night.

Jimmy Kimmel was also shocked by Brandy’s Dancing with the Stars elmination, describing Bristol Palin’s move to the finals as “Hurricane Bristol.”

Jimmy Kimmel said “This was an outrage…true?” Adding that Brandy had a perfect score on one of her Dancing With the Stars semi-finals and that Brandy and Maks couldn’t have been expecting elimination.

Brandy is gracious, saying, “I hoped for the best and had no regrets,” noting that her confidence is back again.

Judging by the last moments of the elimination episode on Tuesday night, things could get tense next week when the winner is nominated for this year’s series of the ABC dance competition Dancing with the Stars; Some audience members booed study in the final minutes of Tuesday’s results show when host Tom Bergeron announced that the pop singer Brandy was out and Palin, Bristol, Sarah’s daughter was the final round of competition next week. Actress Jennifer Grey stars Kyle Massey and Disney had already gotten the word that had been through the last week. Among racks, Grey dance partner Derek Hough was visibly surprised. Similarly, three of the series of professional judges and co-host Brooke Burke.

“This is such a shock!” Brooke said, throwing it to Bruno.

“I’m shocked,” judge Bruno Tonioli said. “I want to stress it’s very important for everybody to vote. It’s so close, every vote counts. I’m so disappointed!” Bruno emoted, asking Brandy if she’d come back and dance on next Monday’s performance show anyway.

“Will you come and do it for me, for us? Come on!”

Asked by Burke how she felt, Brandy responded:

“I don’t know how to feel right now. This hasn’t processed right now for me,” a surprised Brandy said.

Bergeron stepped up and hugged Brandy as she began to tear up.

Jennifer and Kyle had gone into Tuesday night’s results show with the most points from the three pros after performing two dances apiece on Monday. Jennifer got a perfect score of 60 for her two dances, while Kyle snagged 58 points. Brandy was right behind him at 57 points, and Bristol brought up the rear with 53 points from the judges, though that was her personal best on the show to date.

But that was business as usual for this edition of “Dancing.” Bristol, who went into the competition with no dance and no performance background, has consistently wound up at the bottom of the point heap. But, week after week, people — some who have watched the show and, if tweets, blog accounts and message boards are to be believed, some who have not — have been keeping her in the competition.

Who survives each week on this show is determined by a formula of judges’ points and people’s votes.

After the announcement, Bergeron asked Brandy’s dance partner Maks Chmerkovskiy: “This season struck me as the most surprising in that couples who would get their highest score on Monday night were often the ones who left on Tuesday night. What do you think has been different this season?”

Maks, with uncharacteristic restraint, responded that one thing he loves about the fact that his parents came to this country is “the fact that people vote and their voices count and I love the fact that the show represents that. And it represents the people’s choice.”

Tuesday morning, the Web site Jezebel linked to comments on conservative Web site HillBuzz, in which people discussed having figured out a way to game ABC’s email-voting feature, due to a technical glitch on the site.

“Here’s a hint: They don’t have to be VALID email addresses to register them with ABC.com, there is apparently no validation process,” said one commenter. “They just have to be formatted like a valid email address, and you must use a valid zip code and a birthdate that makes you old enough to vote. No, it doesn’t have to be a valid email address – I had one of my anonymous ones XXX@yahoo.com that I used, and then just did the sign-up process all over again with XXX1@yahoo.com and it worked.”

“Lord have mercy, I voted for 3 hours online! I got 300 in,” said another commenter.

After Tuesday’s results show, Hillbuzz posted a screen shot of Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough’s reaction to Bergeron’s announcement that Bristol, not Brandy, was the third dancer making it through to next week:

“Thank you all for helping Bristol Palin…just look at Jennifer Grey’s face… Says it all. Our Bristol is in the finale. The woman impersonating Jennifer Grey looked pissed. [Brandy] is eliminated and hopefully not allowed to drive herself home. How do we win this for Bristol?”

Jennifer Grey dominated Dancing With The Stars Monday night, scoring perfect 10s across the board on both of her dances.

It was a whole new Grey this week. Gone was the complaining about pains in her neck or anywhere else. Instead, she said, “I’m feeling so revved up about the next two weeks. Bring. It. On.” And she danced like she meant it. She’s at the top with a score of 60.

Kyle Massey charmed and shimmied his way through his two dances to take second place with 58. Said judge Len Goodman after his samba: “You’ve got a bionic bum!” And he dubbed him “Mr. Charisma.”

Brandy is right behind Kyle with a 57, after her Argentine tango earned her a perfect 30. Unfortunately for her, her first dance – a pirate-themed paso doble – only earned her 27.

And in last place: Bristol Palin with a 53. She has been in the bottom two six times this season. Her first dance, a paso doble,was highly-praised and earned her a 27. The second one didn’t go over as well and she scored a 26. Now the question is: Will Bristol Palin be in the finals?

Source: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/11/dancing-with-the-stars-semi-finals-jennifers-up-bristols-down—again/1