This fall’s Dancing with the Stars competition will come to a close tonight as the three remaining dance pairs put it all on the line for a chance to become the season 19 winners.
ABC’s Dancing with the Stars is a ballroom dancing competition featuring celebrities and professional dancers. Celebrities are paired with dancers and compete weekly on network television, with pairs eliminated each week.
Last night the first episode of this week’s season 19 finals aired, further paring down the competition to just three dance pairs. Competitors were tasked with reprising a dance at the request of the judges and then putting their best foot forward with a freestyle dance.
YouTube celebrity Bethany Mota and her partner Derek Hough were tasked with bringing back their week-one jive version of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” but were eliminated after scoring a combined 76 points out of a possible 80.
Tonight’s finale will feature Duck Dynasty star Sadie Robertson with her partner Mark Ballas; actress Janel Parrish with her partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy; and actor Alfonso Ribeiro with his partner Witney Carson.
Ribeiro, best-known for portraying Carlton Banks on the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has been a fan-favorite throughout the competition. In the competition’s fourth week Ribeiro trotted out his famed character’s dance, nabbing a perfect score.
Last night Ribeiro and Carson received two perfect scores. One was for a reprisal of their week one jive to Cupid’s “3-6-9” and the other was for the pair’s freestyle dance, which featured songs such as Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)” and The Sugarhill Gang’s “Apache.”
Ribeiro celebrated his perfect score on social media, thanking his fans and calling Carson his “hero.”
The two-hour Dancing with the Stars season 19 finale will air tonight at 9 pm EST on ABC. A season recap titled Dancing with the stars: Road to the Finals will air at 8 pm EST before the competition.