Xochitl Gomez Named Winner of Season 32 of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”

Xochitl Gomez is dancing on the ceiling…

The 17-year-old Mexican American actress and Marvel star and her professional dancing partner Val Chmerkovskiy have become the first pair to win Dancing With the Stars’ Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.

Xochitl Gomez, Dancing with the StarsThe DWTS grand prize was renamed to honor Goodman in September. Goodman, who died at age 78 in April, served as a judge on the reality competition series from 2005 to 2022. 

Gomez and Chmerkovsky claimed the trophy during the Tuesday, December 5, season 32 finale of the long-running ABC celebrity ballroom dancing competition, making her the fourth Hispanic celebrity to win Dancing with the Stars and the first celebrity of Mexican descent to claim the trophy.

“I don’t want this show to end, and I think it’s gonna be really good for me to keep coming back,” she joked after her big win during the finale.

After redeeming their foxtrot and bringing it home with a fiery freestyle, Gomez and Chmerkovskiy received two back-to-back perfect scores from the judges. With their scores from the semifinals also included in their judges’ totals Tuesday night, they were the only couple to earn a perfect score of 120 across all four dances.

“Gosh, I didn’t think that [we did that]. I forgot until there had been like a little thing that said, this is your score something out of something, and it was the score. I was like, ‘What? We did that?’ Yeah, we did that. I’m proud of that,” Gomez said.

Ahead of Tuesday night’s performances, judge Bruno Tonioli visited Gomez and Chmerkovskiy in the studio to reassign them the foxtrot and give Gomez some pointers on how to improve in the dance style. Tonioli said during rehearsals that he was hoping to see more “refined sophistication” than the couple’s first attempt at the foxtrot in week three.

Gomez was the last to grace the stage for the redemption round, but certainly not the least. She made her latest foxtrot look effortless, earning praise from all three judges, including Tonioli, who told her she is a “delight” to watch.

Gomez told Deadline the judge’s advice in rehearsals was invaluable to be able to perfect her foxtrot, especially when it came to lengthening her arms.

“That was one of the things that I tried to do, but I was never that successful. And I tried a lot, but it was hard. So for someone else to have a different voice and tell me, ‘This is something that is one of your weakest points. So fix it.’ And also for him to show me how to do it. I thought that was really nice and definitely helped me out for the foxtrot,” she said.

Chmerkovskiy expressed pride for his partner, beaming as he explained he was most impressed with “how much dance she’s learned.”

“I mean, we put in the work at the studio. But usually we like do a lot more warming up and practicing during the show leading up to the performance. Today, we just trusted ourselves and came out and just danced,” he said.

In the final moments of the Season 32 finale, Gomez and Chmerkovskiy stood on stage next to Jason Mraz and his partner Daniella Karagach, anxiously awaiting the news on who’d eked out the victory. Just as host Alfonso Ribeiro was about to announce the victors, he instead cut to a final commercial — prompting a loud groan from the audience.

“The whole night was special. I keep saying it feels bittersweet because, for us, every week that we had a great performance felt like exactly like this feeling. Truly, every time we got called safe, we felt like we were winning. So tonight, it felt like that times 100.”

Here’s the list of the DWTS winners of Hispanic descent:

Season 5: Hélio Castroneves (Brazilian) and Julianne Hough
Season 13: J.R. Martinez (Salvadoran American) and Karina Smirnoff
Season 23: Laurie Hernandez (Puerto Rican) and Val Chmerkovskiy
Season 32: Xochitl Gomez (Mexican American) and Val Chmerkovskiy

ABC to Premiere New Season of Dancing with the Stars, Featuring Xochitl Gomez, As Scheduled

Xochitl Gomez is headed to the ballroom as originally scheduled…

ABC will proceed as planned with the September 26 season premiere of Dancing with the Stars, featuring the 17-year-old Mexican American actress, in light of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the studios reaching a tentative agreement on Sunday night.

Xochitl GomezThe reality competition will kick off its 32nd season with its full celebrity cast, including Gomez.

The network last Thursday put in place plans to postpone DWTSreturn after actors in its celebrity cast, particularly Walsh, Alyson Hannigan and Mira Sorvino, came under pressure from striking WGA members.

Last week, WGA picketers targeted multiple rehearsals for DWTS, which is a WGA signatory that typically employs one writer to pen talking points for the host.

Picketing on the show continued through yesterday. Just hours before the WGA-AMPTP deal was announced, a group of around 35 writers went out to picket Dancing with the Stars at TV City where producers were doing prep ahead of the Tuesday live season opener.

Following the tentative deal with the studios, all WGA picketing was suspended Sunday night.

Variety shows like DWTS are covered under the SAG-AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Network Television Broadcasting, better known as Network Code. It is separate to the film and TV collective bargaining agreement that SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP negotiated unsuccessfully in the spring and early summer, leading to the current actors strike.

Because of that, ABC is allowed to put on DWTS, and SAG-AFTRA members are allowed to participate. In fact, SAG-AFTRA last week backed actors who are appearing on the show, noting that they are not in violation of strike rules and are required to go to work. It is the show’s WGA affiliation via the employment of one writer out of 500 crew members that made it a struck production.

Season 32 marks the return of DWTS to ABC. The show aired last season on Disney+. The new season will simulcast live on Disney+ and be available next day on Hulu.

Hernandez Recreates Grocery Store Dance Scene from “Sing”

Laurie Hernandez has aisles of style when it comes to her dance moves…

The 16-year-old Puerto Rican Olympic gold medalist and Dancing with the Stars champion recreated one of her favorite scenes from the upcoming animated movie Sing.

Laurie Hernandez

In the video, Hernandez dances her way through the grocery store while the Gypsy Kings flamenco classic “Bamboleo” blasts on the speakers, recreating Rosita’s (Reese Witherspoon) dance routine in the film set to debut on December 21.

“Was so excited about Sing, I couldn’t help recreating one of my favorite scenes,” Hernandez wrote on Twitter.

Her DWTS partner Val Chmerkovskiy also makes a cameo in the fun clip.

Hernandez: First Latina to Win ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”

She may be a teenager, but Laurie Hernandez is already dancing royalty…

The 16-year-old Puerto Rican gymnast, an Olympic gold and silver medalist at the 2016 Rio Games, has been crowned the champion of the 23rd season of ABC‘s Dancing with the Stars.

Laurie Hernandez

Hernandez was crowned the belle of the ballroom alongside her dance partner Val Chmerkovskiy in Tuesday night’s finale, which also featured former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson and IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe.

Hinchcliffe was the runner-up as Johnson finished third.

At just 16 years old, Hernandez is the youngest champion in the show’s history. She’s also the first Latina to take home the coveted mirrorball trophy, and only third Hispanic competitor to claim the title in the show’s 23-season run. Brazilian IndyCar racer Helio Castroneves won DTWS in Season 5, while El Salvadoran-American actor J.R. Martinez, a former U.S. Army soldier, won the title in Season 13.

Hernandez joins Shawn Johnson as Olympic gold medalist gymnasts that have also won a season of Dancing with the Stars. Fellow gymnasts and Olympic champions Nastia Liukin and Aly Raisman have fourth place finishes on their DTWS resumes.

Other previous Olympians to win Dancing with the Stars include Apolo Ohno, Kristi Yamaguchi and Meryl Davis.

Martin to Serve as Guest Judge on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”

Life’s a ball(room) for Ricky Martin

The 42-year-old Puerto Rican singer and actor will serve as a guest judge on Season 18 of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.

Ricky Martin

Martin will be one of a handful of guest judges on the network’s celebrity dance competition throughout the season, including Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts and former DWTS professional dancer, singer and actress Julianne Hough.

During his stint, Martin will appear alongside regular panelists Len GoodmanBruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.

There’s no word yet on when Martin will make his guest appearance on the show.

Martin most recently served as a coach on The Voice Australia and debuted in the first episode of season two, on April 7, 2013.

Bryan Quicksteps Her Way to the Lead on “DTWS: All-Stars”

She had to stump for votes to land a spot on Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars… But Sabrina Bryan is proving that she belongs on the ballroom floor.

After slicing her arm on a difficult move during rehearsals, all eyes were on Bryan during Monday night’s performance show to see if she’d be able to pull off her oh-so-challenging quickstep routine injury-free.

Sabrina Bryan

And the 27-year-old half-Mexican actress/singer and former Cheetah Girl didn’t miss a step, giving a show-stopping performance to a cover of Ram Jam’s “Black Betty” that thoroughly impressed the judges.

Bryan, who competed in the fifth season of ABC’s hit reality celebrity dancing competition, earned 26 points out of a possible 30 – including the first 9 of the season, from DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba, who said she’d never seen such lines on Dancing with the Stars

Following their impressive quickstep, Bryan — a fan favorite — and her professional dance partner Louis Van Amstel ended the performance show a the top of the leaderboard.

DWTS judge Bruno Tonioli, who awarded the pair an 8.5, likened her to Ginger Rogers “at her best … a true dazzler.”

Gushed fellow judge Len Goodman (who also gave the pair an 8.5), who praised the couple’s upper body control and especially the legwork: “This season, the hits just keep on coming.”