There were lots of surprises in tonight’s final of Dancing with the Stars with Temepara George saying it was a-ma-zing to win. Gorgeous Teme looked tearful in her colour-coordinated dress as she grasped the glittering ball and struggled to find words.
Stefano Olivieri wasn’t lost for words for a single moment, and made the point that he is the first professional to win the trophy back to back. Presumably he means in New Zealand because Cheryl Burke won seasons two and three of the United States version, and Julianne Hough won seasons four and five.
Tonight the past contestants from this season and past seasons were on-stage including Brendon The Body Pongia. Sorry Monty, you might have the pecs but Brendon oozes sex appeal. The highlight of the evening has to be Candy Lane dancing with “the boys”. Highly entertaining and original.
Other highlights
- Turns out Temepara George is sexy enough to turn a gay man straight
- Candy Lane reveals herself as a lady of the night, and definitely not of the day after poor Candy’s wrinkled neck was shown in the makeup room. Oops. Guess botox doesn’t make it to the neck
- Lots of sexy costumes, plus Tina Cross in a lampshade
- Rob Guest tried to eat the microphone and wins the don’t get caught when the wind changes award for anguished facial expressions
- The ego finally landed with Stefano changing the words of their final song to say “I am Stefano’s creation”. Someone hand Miss Prozac a barf bag.
- Tina Cross embarrassed the heck out of Jason when she outclassed him in a singing duet; there should be no tomorrow for Jase and his microphone.
Candy Lane in a BrothelCandy Lane and the “boys” danced in a brothel. Miss Prozac is trying hard not to read too much into this intriguing symbolism.
Brendan Cole danced while Candy hugely overacted and wore her knickers over black stockings and stilettos.
Aaron Gilmore, Brian Jones,
Jonny Williams and
Brendon Pongia joined in the action and shared Candy around. Even a slimmed down
Rodney Hide showed a small sign of hip movement while Candy gryated around him. And let’s face it, no one does the chest thrust quite like our Rodney.
Then Brendan (Cole this time) muscles back in for a tango with Candy who is trying desperately to look like a 15 year old. But don’t worry Brendan got her for her sins and slaughtered her.
Round 1 – New choreography of a danceMonty Betham and Nerida Jantti QuickstepThe video previews show a serious
Monty Betham counting the beat in last week’s Tango plus his rehearsals with miss pixie ears
Nerida Jantti. Contrary to Miss Prozac’s fears that the final would be a whitewash, Monty stepped up to the plate and gave lively and entertaining performances.
The first few seconds of the quickstep looked uncomfortable but once in hold, Monty looked more confident however one has to wonder what the judges were drinking. The quickstep lacked lightness; Monty galloped across the floor instead of springing. But the judges all loved it.
Brendan was the only judge to point out the awkward beginning but thought it was bang on once they got into it. Alison blinded us with her mirrored jacket and then gabbled on about how proud Monty and his wife should be. Craig accused Muscles of being a sly underdog who was showing far too much improvement.
Paul Mercurio agreed and said it was a lot better.
Score: 33Temepara George and Stefano Olivieri FoxtrotTVNZ flew partner Sione to New Zealand, presumably to protect Teme from the amorous
Stefano Olivieri. Lots of references to their close friendship and a very stoic Sione seated in the front row. He may be wanting to tackle Smirky Stefano after the show.
Temepara George looked delicious in pink and did an elegant and graceful foxtrot. Not technically perfect but a huge improvement on earlier weeks and lovely to watch.
Craig said she put the fox in foxtrot and had magnificent musicality. Paul said it was elegant and seamless. Wonderful, a pleasure to watch. Brendan said she had star quality, smooth, sophisticated and absolutely gorgeous. Miss Prozac was too blinded by Alison’s jacket to notice what she said.
Round 2 – Favourite DanceMonty Betham and Nerida Jantti Paso DobleOnce again wearing the black bolero jacket (has no one told TVNZ bolero jackets on sloping shoulders are a no no?) while Nerida dazzled in orange. Still love the choreography of this paso but somehow it didn’t live up to the excitement of last week’s action. The caping action was superb, characterisation was good and the intensity was there too. Monty swung Nerida around by her hand and foot and into the hearts of the judges. However, Miss Prozac is far more interested in knowing when Nerida will be announcing her pregnancy.
Paul said you lived the dance. Fantastic. Brendan thought it was a step up, energy and shaping magnificent. Alison says if she was the bull she’d run the other way. The only place Alison would be running is to the bedroom to turn back the sheets. Craig thought it was fabulous and really, really brilliant.
Score: 38Temepara George and Stefano Olivieri SambaWearing pink again,
Temepara George and
Stefano Olivieri wriggled and shimmied to the Samba party dance. There were a couple of moments when the synchronisation wasn’t there and it wasn’t as good as their performance the last time they did it. The Samba ended in the upside down fandango Stefano loves so much that he put it in both
Suzanne Paul and Teme’s routines.
Jason talks once again about the love and friendship between the two. Quelle surprise they’re going to be friends for life.
Alison felt like she went to Brazil and made some corny joke about him being a travel agent. Craig said it was almost perfect, amazing bounce action, just a little error coming around the corner.
Paul said you really have grown as an artist and a performer. ‘Triffic’. Well done. Brendan felt some of the transitional movements were lacking, and not your best performance but both fantastic together. Hooray, some common sense.
Hmmm and then Stefano said that Sione was the luckiest man on earth and that if Teme wasn’t taken he’d be putting his hand up for her. Huh? Guess
Craig Revel-Horwood is right when he says she’s sexy enough to turn a gay man straight.
Score: 36
Round 3 FreestyleMonty Betham and Nerida Jantti Samba variationsNerida Jantti mounts Muscles and piggy backs onto stage with her arms out like a crucifix and wearing a skimpy tasselled costume. It was no match for
Miriama Smith’s sizzling Samba costume but was still pretty hot. They looked like they were having fun, but unfortunately we had already seen two superior samba dances this evening, and the music was heh heh heh heh awful. Hang on, was that it? It’s over already. Where was the variation? The light and shade? Even Monty admits he didn’t do it justice.
Jason Gunn congratulates Monty on his muscles and his lack of dress and pixie Nerida loyally says Muscles did well.
Brendan says Monty is a legend and loved Nerida. Paul loved the opening image, fast and furious movements, you pushed it right to the end. Craig didn’t think it was possible to base an entire routine around one step – the shimmy – and said he was loving it daaaaarling. Alison loved the music and made more smutty remarks about there being nothing on Monty that is going to rust.
Score: 37Temepara George and Stefano Olivieri The smirkster has made a big secret of this dance refusing to reveal the style of dance for the piece de resistance, which means it better be good, or the voting public will be texting ‘MONTY’.
Are you kidding? The opening lyrics to the song are
‘I am what I am, I am Stefano’s special creation.’
How nice to have your own Barbie doll to play with, but people are already being turned off by Stefano’s arrogance.
Teme came onto stage in a black dress making it obvious she’s going to do a strip tease. Sure enough the black and silver number get pulled off to reveal – quelle surprise – more tassels. The wardrobe department must have a special running on tassels.
Then they cha cha and boogie before Teme cartwheels onto Stefano’s shoulder. A much better routine than Monty’s samba.
Craig loved the fact that they were dancing to his anthem. (Craig sang this number on a UK reality show). He said the dance was A-ma-zing. Gorgeous. Alison gave a pep talk about dancing through her heart and leaving footprints. Brendan said both of you have thrilled us. Copying Craig he said, one word, sen-sa-tion-al. Paul said it was a great number to finish the evening with. Fantastic.
Score: 39Leaderboard - Temepara 37 + 36 + 39 = 112
- Monty 33 + 38 + 37 = 108
Monty’s only hope rests now with the public vote.
Past contestants The eliminated couples returned to the dance floor to reprise their favourite dances. Mannequin
Geeling Ng did the rhumba while the follicle challenged
Brian Jones brought reinforcements which wriggled across his lip and chin. Even he looked bored.
H-Bomb
Hayley Holt and
Peter Urlich - to list them in order of their star power - waltzed and Mr Haughty
Martin Devlin and
Lauren de Boeck tangoed but this time she didn’t lay down across Shane Cortese.
In the second segment of eliminated celebs,
Tina Cross in her lampshade and
Aaron Gilmore did the Cha Cha. It was good but Miss Prozac was hoping to see their stunning Paso Doble again.
Cory Hutchings unfortunately did decide to reprise his robot moves with
Rebecca Nicholson in the Paso. Lucky he looks so young and sexy, but the Paso wasn’t his best dance.
Miriama Smith and her tassels did the samba. Wow! Very sexy.
Jonny Williams and Mirama danced beautifully. Tonight their Samba was better than Teme and Stefano’s.
All singing, all dancing finaleWhile we were waiting for voters to
fill the coffers at the telcos,
Peter Urlich sang some numbers from
his latest album, Tina sang, and Jason made some noises that vaguely resembled a tune. Somehow it’s not the same seeing Jason singing without a pile of six year olds dancing around him.
The eliminated contestants and the indefatigable Candy Lane were dancing fools as everyone jived while Jason banged out a tune. Geeling and her wig got into it too. And then we were told the voting lines were closed.
Then with a drum roll and a very long pause… Tempara was crowned the winner of
Dancing with the Stars 2008! Congrats Teme. Sione, lasso your woman and head on back to Townsville with her. She’s not safe while Stefano is around…
Photos: TVNZ
Tonight, 
The final four dancers in the 2008 series of