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Burke Outsteps Sapp For 'Dancing' With The Stars' Crown

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 25, 2008

After 10 weeks of amateur ballroom competition, model-actress Brooke Burke and her partner Derek Hough were named winners of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" on the finale Tuesday night.

She topped second-place finisher Warren Sapp, the retired football standout and former Tampa Bay Buccaneer who often was a crowd favorite.

The winner, determined by a combination of judges' scores and viewer votes, gets the satisfaction of winning and a disco ball trophy.

Coming in third place was former boy band member Lance Bass and his partner Lacey Schwimmer. Bass will be joining the "Dancing With the Stars" tour that plays Tampa in January.

Burke had dominated the dance floor during most of the competition and was clearly the judges' favorite going into the final night.

She went out in style with a graceful, romantic Viennese waltz. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba called her the "star" of "Dancing With the Stars."

"You have proved what you can do with your body, and today you showed what you can do with your soul," Inaba said.

Sapp and partner Kym Johnson did a spirited hustle to "Funkytown" for their finale.

"His personality is larger than life," Johnson said. "You just want to cuddle him."

If nothing else, he proved a 300-pound man can flow on the dance floor.

"This is the best experience of my life," he said.

"You may not be the judges' champion, but you are the people's champion," said judge Len Goodman as he heaped praise on Sapp's charisma.

Bass and Schwimmer were a cute couple dressed in sailor outfits. They bounced around in a lively Jitterbug to the 1950s rock 'n' roll number "Jim Dandy."

"He is a little butterfly that came out of his cocoon," said Schwimmer, commenting on Bass' most improved status.

Singers Alicia Keyes and Miley Cyrus also performed their latest hits to help fill out the two hours allotted for the finale.

Also, all of this season's celebrity contenders, from Kim Kardashian and Susan Lucci to Rocco DiSpirito and Cody Linley, came back for one more dance each.

That dirty dancing senior Cloris Leachman, the most unpredictably eccentric character in "Dancing" history, returned for a tango and behaved herself on the dance floor.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

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