Photo By: ABC - Adam Rose
The 2018 finale of Dancing With the Stars: Athletes aired live tonight, with three contestants left in the competition. Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon and pro partner Jenna Johnson have been the front-runners this season, but they did receive some criticism when it came to their freestyle performance tonight. The other two couples in the mix were NFL player Josh Norman with Sharna Burgess and former champion figure skater Tonya Harding with Sasha Farber.
So, which one of the couples won tonight? And, the Dancing With the Stars: Athletes winner was Adam Rippon with Jenna Johnson.
Tonight, the show welcomed back all 10 of the competitors from the season to participate in a big dance number. It was truly a big celebration.
This season of DWTS, there were some major changes and there was even a new show runner, as reported by E! News. Andrew Llinares has taken on the show running gig and he put a few new spins on the beloved series. Upon announcing the news of his coming aboard, Llinares said that, “Dancing With the Stars is one of the largest scale shows on television, and I love that it provides a place for me, as a producer, to have big, ambitious ideas that I can then bring to life. It can be quite the undertaking to come in to a show that has been on the air for 25 seasons, but I’m excited about taking on the challenge and finding new ways to take the show forward.”
Though there may be a new show runner, there is still the essence of everything viewers love to see. Tune back in this Fall 2018 for the next season of the show.
So, what’s next for Rippon and Johnson now that the show is over? Currently, Johnson is dating DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy and Rippon is taken as well. Rippon dished to People that a double date is on the horizon for them, explaining that his boyfriend hasn’t been able to come to town yet. Rippon stated that, “He’s coming as soon as the show is over, and he’s kicking himself. We promised each other we’d do a double date right when he gets here … He’s in the process of moving here. He lives in Helsinki right now. It works. We FaceTime in the middle of rehearsal and everything.”
Rippon’s boyfriend, Kajaala, currently lives in Finland. The two actually matched together on Tinder. Recently, Rippon told Gay Times Magazine that things are getting pretty serious with his man.
In the meantime, Rippon has had some fun hanging out with Johnson and her boyfriend Chmerkovskiy. Rippon told People that, “I’ve gotten to dance with Val a little bit, so now that I have the skills, I’m going to dance with literally everybody and anybody. When I dance with Val, he’s definitely showing me which direction to go. When I dance with Jenna, I’m pretending I am because she’s really leading me throughout the whole thing.”
This season on DWTS, there was no runner-up. When the results were revealed, all three finalists were on the chopping block.
