'Dancing With the Stars' 2017: Rashad Jennings, Emma Slater Are Season 24 Winners
After 10 weeks of impressive dance performances, the 24th season of "Dancing with the Stars" now has a winner.
As reported by E! Online, former National Football League (NFL) running back Rashad Jennings and his professional dance partner Emma Slater were declared the winners of the reality dance competition this season. They walked away from the contest with the much-coveted Mirrorball trophy before hopping into a car with the show's hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews.
Before the winner was announced, each of the final three pairs had to perform one last time in a 24-hour fusion challenge to complete the judge's scores.
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In a surprising turn of events, Normani Kordei and Val Chmerkovskiy ended up going home with a third-place win, earning a total score of 118 out of 120. While they received a perfect score for their last performance, dancing a blend of the Argentine Tango and a foxtrot, it was not enough for the pair to come out on top.
David Ross and Lindsay Arnold, on the other hand, performed a mix of the foxtrot and salsa as a last dance. Totaling a score of 109 out of 120 for the finals aside from viewer votes, the pair had to settle for second place.
Rashad and Emma earned the top spot of the competition performing a cha cha-tango fusion. This dance gave them a score of 39 out of 40, and they ended up receiving a total score of 119 out of 120 for the two-night finale.
Andrews revealed that the 32-year-old athlete spent a total of 362 hours rehearsing for "Dancing with the Stars," which is the most of any contestant that participated in the competition.
"I push myself so hard, because working hard is all I know," Rashad said, according to ET Online. "I just wanted to come out here, get to know myself and fight for this."
"I wanna thank Rashad for letting me create," Emma added. "I'm sad because I don't know if I'll get this again."
"Dancing with the Stars" will return to ABC next fall.
