Samuel Johnson and partner Jorja Freeman emerged victorious, scoring some pretty snazzy silverware and a $50,000 donation to Love Your Sister in the process after winning Dancing With The Stars last night.
On his win, Samuel was clearly shellshocked but managed to give credit to both his dance partner Jorja and fellow competitor Courtney Act. “Holy smokes,” he said as he handed the trophy over to his partner; “Jorja must hold this because she’s the real dancer here.”
It just so happened that Samuel presented Grant Denyer with his Gold Logie in 2018, so it was only fitting that Grant returned the honour in the form of awarding Samuel the mirror ball trophy. Samuel promised to “kick cancer in the pie hole like it throughly deserves”.
Love Your Sister was the charity famously founded by Samuel in 2012, after Connie Johnson dared her younger brother to unicycle around the country in the face of her terminal diagnosis with breast cancer.
Determined to vanquish all cancers with hard science, Samuel stated that this hefty donation would pay for a research assistant for nine months. It also sees the amount of money raised to date for Love Your Sister creep closer to the $10 million mark.
Even though Courtney Act was on the top of the leader board it was Samuel who took home the top prize when viewer votes and judges’ scores were combined. Courtney danced her way to runner up, ahead of Constance Hall who waltzed into third place.
The Dancing With The Stars Grand Finale didn’t disappoint showcasing the most spectacular routines and boasting a high energy opening dance number featuring all the stars.
After encoring their favourite dances, the first round of scores saw a neck-and-neck battle with Courtney and Samuel both on 29 (including two 10’s from Sharna and Tristan) and Constance on 23.
The freestyle dances were show stopping in every sense of the word, complete with a mid-routine costume change and UV getup for Courtney resulting in 10’s across the board, elaborate scaffolding and true rock ‘n’ roll moves from Constance and a big band musical homage with a whole lotta sparkle from Samuel.
On the final remarks on our top three stars performances, the judges acknowledged everyone’s hard work over the past three months with a special shout out to the professional dancers, teaching beginners and pulling together multiple routines every week.
Sharna congratulated the winning pair and summarised everyone’s thoughts by saying: “It’s magical what you’ve done this season, especially you Jorja. Samuel, you wear your heart on your sleeve. You’re real, you’re raw and the ultimate showman.”
