Why You Should Pay No Attention to My Predictions

I'm through making predictions about who will win on Dancing with the Stars.

Last night was the exciting season 8 finale of our favorite show, and I was convinced actor Gilles Marini and his partner Cheryl Burke would win...

With Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani in second place ...

And Olympic gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson and partner Mark Ballas in third ...

Well, if you were fortunate enough to be watching last night, you know that I was proven wrong. Shawn and Mark took first, with Gilles and Cheryl in second place and Melissa and Tony in third.

I think my crystal ball needs to go in to the shop for a tuneup.

In fairness, though, I think this was the best season of the show so far, and the most difficult in which to predict results. It was the first time that all three couples received perfect scores (a 10 from each judge, for a total of 30) for their final dances (and the Argentine Tango danced by Gilles and Cheryl was a red-hot, amazing thing to see). The final three contestants all deserved to win, and the point scores for Gilles and Shawn were separated by less than 1% ... an amazing amount going into the finale, where there's usually a clear front-runner. I still think Gilles Marini had the most talent, but I'm not disappointed with the results - I think I would have been equally pleased no matter who won.

Just don't hire me to make any predictions for you.

The fall season of Dancing with the Stars comes in September, and the bar for the next set of contestants is set very high.

I can't wait.

And maybe someday I'll get to dance the waltz with Edyta Sliwinska ...


Have a good day. Dance. It's fun.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo