'Dancing' stars share post-finale reactions
LOS ANGELES — Here's a fact about Rumer Willis: She and pro partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy are Season 20 champions of ABC's Dancing with the Stars.
The victory, a combination of judges' scores and viewer votes, was still sinking in for the 26-year-old actress and her partner shortly after host Tom Bergeron announced they had triumphed over singer Riker Lynch and pro dancer Allison Holker.
Iraq War veteran Noah Galloway and his professional partner, Sharna Burgess, learned they had finished third a few minutes earlier in Tuesday's two-hour finale.
When Willis heard their names as champs, "I had this moment where I was like, 'Wait. Does that mean we're eliminated or we're not? Oh, wait. OK, we won! Oh my gosh, this is awesome!' " she said.
Chmerkovskiy, a veteran Dancing performer enjoying his first win, was waiting anxiously to hear whether he and Willis would triumph.
"I was just like, 'Please, please, please just one time. Let me hear how I heard it in my sleep.' And it finally happened. It was awesome," he said.
Willis said she entered the contest hoping to win the mirrorball trophy.
"I wanted it from Day 1 and I think that was the intention and the goal that we both set," she said. "Whether or not it was something we were conscious of, I think part of the drive and passion that got us here was just a desire to be able to have this moment and be able to share it together."
The pair received perfect scores from the judges for Monday's two finals' dances and received the same marks on Tuesday for their 24-Hour Fusion Challenge performance.
Willis said she appreciated the support from her sisters and her parents, actors Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, over the course of the competition, but that's nothing new for her.
"I have an incredibly supportive family, so it might be new for other people to see. But the person I'm most excited about celebrating with is Val, because he is the person I did this with," she said.
Pop singer Lynch and his partner, Holker, matched Willis and Chmerkovskiy in the judges' scoring, earning perfect marks for their three finals' dances.
"That was such a cool moment to see the (judges') 10s" for the fusion dance, said Lynch, who spoke to Willis and Chmerkovskiy right after their victory was announced. "As soon as we were allowed to approach them and celebrate with them, I just said, 'Congratulations.' They were amazing. That last dance of theirs, I think, was probably my favorite Val and Rumer dance."
Galloway, who had an arm and leg amputated after suffering war injuries, said making the finals constituted a victory.
"When I was asked to come on the show, I thought I'd be the first or second person to go home, but I'll give it a shot. We made it third out of 12 and the thing that I love is we got to do every dance," he said. "Last night, being able to do that freestyle and (Burgess') choreographing that dance, that was a thank you to all those people, my family, who have been there through the struggles and for me to come out the other end the person I am today. If we hadn't made it to third, we wouldn't have gotten that opportunity to do that dance."
Galloway says he felt from the beginning that Willis would win.
"I called that Week 1. Every couple of weeks, I would tell her, 'This is yours to win. Don't forget it.' Again, tonight, at the beginning of the show on the stage, I hugged her and said, 'Remember what I told you. This is yours.' I saw it. She put so much passion into her dances and she's so incredible to watch, it was no surprise to me that she won."