‘Dancing With the Stars’ Fans Have Plenty of Opinions About Kaitlyn Bristowe Winning

Dancing With the Stars has officially passed off the Mirrorball to its newest champion following the Season 29 finale. Heading into the evening, just four duos remained in what was expected to be quite an exhilarating fight to the finish line. After the top four performed two dances, the end result was left up to the fan votes as Tyra Banks called down the pairs and announced Kaitlyn Bristowe and Artem Chigvintsev were the Mirrorball champions, marking the second consecutive time a member of Bachelor Nation has won the competition.

Taking second as runner-up was Nev Schulman and Jenna Johnson. That meant Nelly and his partner, Daniella Karagach, and Justina Machado and Sasha Farber rounded out the final four. For Bristowe, the victory comes after some apparent harsh criticism from Carrie Ann Inaba, who previously dated her partner. Despite the tough love, the two continued to improve each week, culminating with two perfect scores during the finale after a Cha-cha-cha to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and a freestyle to Jennifer Lopez’s “Let’s Get Loud.”

With Bristowe and Chigvintsev as the newest pair to bring home the Mirror Ball, plenty of Dancing With the Stars fans voiced their thoughts on the finale. Quickly after Banks revealed the winner, social media was lighting up with reaction from the viewers.

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For Bristowe, the win is not just a win for herself, but a win for fans of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. This is the second time in a row a member of the show has won as Hannah Brown took home the Mirrorball in Season 28.

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Bristowe’s invite was seen firsthand on television as The Bachelor host Chris Harrison extended the offer to Dancing With the Stars during one of the show’s recap episode earlier in the pandemic. It also was special because Bristowe had previously not been allowed to compete on the show despite her interest due to conflicting interests between the two ABC shows. 

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Whenever the Mirrorball is handed out, there always is going to be one fanbase that is the loudest about the results. In this case, it turned out to be the Catfish star’s fans who felt he was the more deserving of the two. 

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From a scoring perspective, Schulman was among the most successful this season in consistently getting the highest scores. He and his partner netted a pair of perfect scores on finale night and finished the season with 30s in each of their final four performances. 

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Taking third was Nelly, who also performed during the episode. He and Karagach, who was a first-time pro, had a special connection throughout the series and had many fans hoping they had come out on top. 

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For Chigvintsev, this Mirrorball Trophy has some even more meaning behind it. His wife, Nikki Bella, just gave birth to their first child, a son, in July. 

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Rounding out the top four was Machado and Farber, a duo that had certainly had their fair share of memorable moments throuhgout the series. Despite placing fourth, there supporters still believe they should have been the ones to take home the top prize.