Kym Johnson's DWTS Diary: We Did It!
Nov. 25 2009, Published 9:58 a.m. ET
All season long, Dancing with the Stars pro Kym Johnson has been updating OK! readers on the ups and downs of turning her partner Donny Osmond into a ballroom champion!
Hi, everyone! Well, we did it! Today is obviously a fantastic one for me — Donny and I are now the Dancing with the Stars champions! I’ve been busy doing press appearances all day and haven’t had much sleep, but I wanted to take a moment to write a final blog to all the loyal OK! readers who have followed my dance journey with Donny all these weeks.
I’m just so excited. I’m exhausted, but the adrenalin is taking me through this day. To have actually won is so amazing. I’m so proud of Donny. I haven’t decided where I’m going to put my DWTS mirror ball trophy yet, but it will definitely be somewhere I can see it all the time!
Last night was one of the best moments of my life. When Tom Bergeron said "Donny and Kym," I just could not believe our names came out of his mouth. As it approached the end of the show last night, I was on pins and needles. When we got into the final two, I thought, oh, we’ve got a shot at this.
Everyone has worked really hard but I think it was very emotional for me because this was my tenth season on Dancing with the Stars — three in Australia and seven here. So it meant so much to me. Donny gave me so much and I really wanted him to get that trophy and so thrilling that it actually happened. It was a dream of mine to win DWTS — and the dream came true.
Reflecting back on the season, and why we won, I think that Donny showed that he was the ultimate performer. He really put himself out there and tried new things. Donny was vulnerable going into dancing, out of his comfort zone, but his confidence built as the weeks passed and he never gave up, even when we got criticism and unforeseen things happened, and some of our dances didn’t work. He’d always pick himself up and move on to the next challenge and I think the audience and the judges saw that. Donny was competing against two young girls in the finale and he held his own with them.
He’s such a professional. His work ethic and dedication are incredible. I learned so much from him how hard work pays off. That’s how he’s been in show business as long as he has. Donny really has it down with balancing everything, too—he manages to do all his work and be a family man. After the show, his wife was so emotional and happy as she stood on the ballroom floor celebrating her husband’s victory. The entire family has been so lovely to me. I’m an honorary Osmond for life!
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My favorite moment of the season was our Monday night freestyle routine. It was so much fun and we got three tens. It was the culmination of everything I taught Donny over the course of many weeks. My least favorite moment was when we had the wardrobe malfunction in the tango the week before, when Donny got tangled up in my dress.
Truthfully, I thought the season was over for us at that point — I really did. But when the fans voted us through, it ended up being a learning experience. It made us strong and opened the door to our big comeback. I have to give credit to Donny’s fans for keeping us in there for the entire ten weeks of the show. He has fans who have grown up with him — those fans have stayed with him and through DWTS, I know he’s won a lot of new fans as well.
I’m in New York now, finishing up my final DWTS media interviews, then this very afternoon, can you believe it, I start rehearsals for my Broadway show Burn the Floor. I’ll rehearse again tomorrow, and then the show opens Friday! I’m a little bit nervous, but it’s going to be another dream come true for me to perform on Broadway. I hope some of you can come see the show if you happen to be in New York from Nov. 27-Jan. 4.
I would love to come back to do Season 10 of DWTS in March, but we pro dancers usually don’t learn if we’re on the show until right before rehearsals are set to start. I must admit it will be tempting to try to defend my title.
Thank you all again for your support all season. We love you and couldn’t have done it without you!