“Dancing with the Stars” is a classic competition TV series that has been going on for decades. If you aren’t familiar with the show, it is where celebrities with no dancing experience pair up with one of the show’s professional, experienced dancers. There are judges who are also experienced dancers, and each week they score and critique each pair’s dance. The entire goal of the show is for the celebrities to show their improvement and growth throughout each week. This season was the first season without Len Goodman judging, an amazing ballroom dancer and an amazing judge, friend, and mentor to all who had met him. He sadly passed away last winter after he announced he was retiring from the show.

The season 32 started this September, and I have been hooked on it like I am every year. This year I have been even more engaged than past years because I am really familiar with the celebrities and love the match ups. Specifically, reality TV and social media star Harry Jowsey and his partner Rylee Arnold. I will get more into that later in the article. The finale just happened this past Tuesday, December 5. The couples who fought all season and deservedly made it was Ariana Madax (reality show Vanderpump Rules) and her partner Pasha Poshkov, Jason Mraz (Grammy winning singer who is known for “I’m Yours” and “I won’t Give Up”) and his partner Daniella Karagach, Charity Lawson (from Bachelor in Paradise) and Artem Chigvintsev, Xochitl Gomez (Doctor Strange 2) and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy, and lastly Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother series) and Sasha Farber. 

This was the first year ever that five couples made it to the finale. Fans speculate that it was because Alyson and Sasha received more viewer votes than one of the better couples, and the producers didn’t want to send them to the finals and kick out the real losers. So, it is speculated that the producers just sent everyone to the finals. This is not confirmed, but it seems to be true since Alyson and Sasha have always scored lowest out of who was still standing. Everyone else who qualified received at least one perfect score but this couple has never. 

The competition throughout the entire season has been close, and it was up in the air for who America thought would win. The judges even seemed to love all of these contestants also. Each couple performed two dances. They all scored great, Ariana and Pasha received a total 117/120 for both of their dances, Jason and Daniella got 117/120, Xochitl and Val got 120/120, Charity and Artem got 118/120, and Alyson and Sasha got 104/120. After their performances, last year’s winners Charli Damelio (TikTok star) and Mark Ballas performed a dance routine. There was a lot of controversy around Charli being a contestant, as she was a competitive dancer her entire life and was only 18 when she competed. She went into the competition with such an advantage on the rest of the contestants; she already knew how to dance. Jason Mraz caught his breath and performed a song of his own for the audience as an intermission. Then before the crowning of the winners, the pro’s of this season returned to dance to a few numbers. 

The moment everyone had been nervous and waiting for arrived. Xochitl and Val were announced as the winners of Dancing With The Stars season 32 Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. I thought the winner would be Xochitl and Val, but I was rooting for Ariana and Pasha, as well as Jason and Daniella. Alyson and Sasha received fifth place, Charity and Artem got fourth, Ariana and Pasha were third, and it came down to Jason and Daniella getting second place. All of their assigned dances that they competed in first were great, but their freestyle dances were even better. A Twitter user stated “Jason and Daniella’s freestyle was the best dance of the entire season.” That is very true. The judges seemed to overly favor Xochitl even though there had been many weeks when other couples scored higher than them. 

Now onto Harry Jowsey and Rylee Arnold. Harry Jowsey has had a reputation of being a player, dating around, and leaving girls heartbroken. He is 26 years old, and got his fame from the Netflix dating show “Too Hot To Handle.” Rylee is just 18 years old and this is her first year as a professional dancer on the show. She followed in the footsteps of her older sister, Lindsey Arnold, who was a past pro on the series. The couple showed an immediate connection in their dance on week one. They also were posting Tik Toks together when they were not in the studio practicing, but actually at Harry’s apartment. Throughout the entire season the duo would constantly post content on social media like that and showed obvious chemistry. Harry called her pretty, she called him sweet, they hugged and hugged and hugged. They sadly got eliminated week 9, the week before the semi-finals. The couple constantly got terrible scores week after week, but the fans’ votes saved them. Many people thought this was unfair and his fans needed to stop voting for them since he obviously was not improving compared to the people who got eliminated before him. I personally voted for them every week, even the week they got out. It was just entertaining to see their relationship grow and I, as well as millions of others, got very invested in the two together. 

Everyone wondered what would happen after they got eliminated. Would he leave her heartbroken and not talk to her? Would they stay connected? Well, the day after their elimination the couple posted on Snapchat together, and they posted that Harry bought Rylee a $15,000 Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet. And the next day, Harry spent Thanksgiving with her and her family. The couple definitely brought in a lot more viewers and made this season the most interesting. 

I have no idea what my next fixation will be on and what I will watch every Tuesday night since the season has ended. Let’s hope the next season is just as entertaining as this one has been!