Hines Ward Grabs 'Dancing With the Stars' Victory
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward and his partner Kym Johnson emerged as winners of ABC's “Dancing With the Stars” Season 12 Tuesday night.
Actress Kirstie Alley and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy took second place, and Disney actress Chelsea Kane and partner Mark Ballas came in third.
All three finalists performed their favorite dance from the season Tuesday, each earning perfect scores from judges.
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Hines Ward and partner Johnson danced to the Samba to Mama from week 10.
Alley and Chmerkovskiy performed the cha cha cha from week one. Alley, who lost 38 inches since starting “Dancing with the Stars,” donned on a dress half the size of the one she wore in week one.
Kane and Ballas chose their wizard-themed Viennese Waltz for their favorite dance.
Ward, who later took home the Mirror Ball trophy, wasn't shy in showing affection for his mom. After the NFL player and Kym performed the samba, he ran over to kiss his mom.
He later tweeted about his experience of having his mom and pastor supporting him at the final show.
"Having my Mom, Swann, Franco, JB, Farrior, Clark, my pastor Rod, Andy and my closest friends at the show last night was amazing!" Ward, wrote via Twitter Tuesday.
Ward, who is half Korean and half African-American, has spoken in the past of hardships he experienced as a result of being a mixed-race child. When he visited his birthplace of Seoul, Korea, after winning the Super Bowl MVP award in 2006, he testified that it was the "grace of God" that sustained him during those tough times growing up.
Ward said that his mother, Kim Young-hee, who is Korean, had to raise him as a single parent shortly after arriving in the United States because her husband left her.
Since she couldn't speak English, God was the only one she could lean on, Ward told reporters in Korea.
“Because she had no cousins and she could not speak the language, the only one my mother could lean on was God. My mother went to church from the moment she arrived in America. Looking at my mother, I also leaned on God and I learned what it meant to live a life with God.”
Season 12 of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" was the most-watched run of the show.
The celebrity dancing show averaged 22.5 million total viewers for the latest season, up four percent from the previous season, according to the Nielsen Co.
