Season 14 of Dancing with the Stars wrapped up last night, with the final show of the season finding an audience large enough to overshadow American Idol‘s final performance episode. ABC’s DWTS produced viewer numbers large enough to make it the second biggest Tuesday of the 2011-2012 season. The showdown between Donald Driver & Peta Murgatroyd, William Levy & Cheryl Burke, and Katherine Jenkins & Mark Ballas drew 17.5 million viewers.
This season’s winner turned out to be the all-time leading receiver for the Green Bay Packers, Donald Driver. Driver and his partner Murgatroyd won the coveted Mirror Ball trophy, making Driver the third NFL star to emerge victorious in the celebrity dance competition. Driver follows in the footsteps of NFL stars Emmitt Smith and Hines Ward who also snagged Mirror Ball trophies after proving their fancy footwork wasn’t restricted to the gridiron.
“It took me 13 years to win the Super Bowl,” Driver stated in an interview with THR. “I’m just glad it took me one season to win the Mirror Ball.”
