Did ‘Bachelor and Bachelorette Nation’ turn out in droves to ensure their gal, Hannah Brown took home the Mirror Ball on Monday night’s season finale of Dancing with the Stars?  Well, during the final night of competition, Brown and her pro dance partner, Alan Bersten had their best performances to date, which could have also swayed the nationwide vote.

Whatever the case, the season 28 finale had Brown besting runner-up Kel Mitchell, and before that Ally Brooke and Lauren Alaina who wound up in 3rd and fourth place, respectively.

Brown looked stunned as host Tom Bergeron announced her and her partner as the winners.  It was just a week ago, she had a tearful confrontation with judge Carrie Ann Inaba over what she felt was an undeserved tough critique of her dance moves.

Following last night’s show, Inaba told US Weekly on the decision of Brown for the crown: “It’s not what I expected. But this whole season has been filled with ups and downs and unexpected twists and turns. I think, always, the right person wins on Dancing With the Stars because it’s a collaborative vote between the judges’ scores and the audience. And what the audience says is very important and we honor it.”

Watch the former beauty queen’s crowning Mirror Ball moment below.  Then let us know, did the right celebrity win the competition? Share your theories in the comment section.

It was the most emotional semi-finals in the history of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.  Five couples were in the running and by the end of the two-hour broadcast on Monday night, one would be eliminated.

But no one expected it to go the way it did in a shocking and heartbreaking turn of events.  Considered by many the top frontrunner to take the Mirror Ball Trophy, former Dawson’s Creek star, James Van Der Beek, announced in tears during the broadcast that his wife, Kimberly who was pregnancy with their sixth child, miscarried over the weekend.

But things got even more painful from there.  In an attempt to make the finals next week each duo had to perform a “redemption dance” chosen by the judges as the worst dance from their season, followed by a new routine.

Van Der Beek and his pro partner, Emma Slater performed a Cha-Cha which did not go over well with the judges, causing them by the end of the night to be the lowest scoring couple on the leaderboard.  But it was before his second dance that Van Der Beek shared the news of his his wife’s miscarriage.  He then danced an emotional tango in her honor.

At the end of the episode after three couples were saved it, was between Ally Brooke and Sasha Farber being eliminated … or James and Emma  The judges had to make the horrific decision of who would stay and compete and who would be sent home.

Photo: ABC

Across the board the judges chose Ally and Sasha.  What followed was pure shock in the audience.  Then, Ally Brooke broke town in tears pleasing for the judges and the producers to give her spot to Van Der Beek in the finals

“Can I give it to James, please?” Brooke expressed through her tears.  Van Der Beek would not allow her to do that and the show went off the air with co-host Erin Andrews, judge Carrie Ann Inaba and the viewers in America, in sadness.

Van Der Beek took to his Twitter account to thank those who supported him and his family during their difficult time following the loss of their unborn child: “Wrecked. Devastated. In shock. That’s how we’re feeling right now after the soul we thought were going to welcome into our family has taken a short cut to whatever lies beyond this life. There are no words… thank you everyone for the love & support. It’s exactly what we need.”

So, what did you think of the turn of events that saw James Van Der Beek exit Dancing with the Stars on the heels of the news of his wife’s miscarriage? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.

Controversy already erupted upon the announcement on Wednesday of the cast of the new season of Dancing with the Stars.  Most intriguing is that a statement from the longtime ABC series, host, Tom Bergeron revealed his hopes to the producers that their celebrity casting choices would be non-political in nature, especially after the ballroom dance competition had been on a year hiatus from the small screens.

Following the celebrity contestant reveal, which included former White House Press Secretary. Sean Spicer (who worked for President Donald Trump), the host released a statement via his Twitter account.  In it, Bergeron noted that he’d had lunch with the show’s new executive producer and had suggested some ideas for the show. Chief among them was that DWTS should avoid casting someone with “ANY party affiliations.”  When he left that lunch, Bergeron says he was convinced that would be the case.

Bergeron expressed: “It was my hope that ‘DWTS,’ in its return from an unprecedented year-long hiatus, would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”  Then he said, “Subsequently (and rather obviously) a decision was made to, as they often say in Hollywood, “go in a different direction”.  He went on to say, “It is the prerogative of producers, in partnership with the network, to make whatever decisions they feel are in the best long term interests of the franchise. We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it’s their call. I’ll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions.”

DWTS new EP Andrew Llinares, then said in a statement. “We’ve got a great and diverse cast. We are excited about the season,”

You can see Bergeron’s tweet in full below.

Some thoughts about today pic.twitter.com/aCQ4SHrGCI

— Tom Bergeron (@Tom_Bergeron) August 21, 2019

So, what do you think of Bergeron’s hopes for the casting choices of DTWS?  Would you have preferred Sean Spicer to be cut from the cast?  Who would you have liked to have seen cast on the series? Would you want any celeb you like to even go on it any more? Comment below.