Shawn Johnson vaults to ‘Dancing’ title

The time finally came to announce the third-place contestant, and it was indeed Melissa,  leaving Gilles to battle it out with a seemingly overmatched Shawn Johnson.

When the show returned, Tom Bergeron explained that the vote had been very, very close — which might have come as a surprise to those who assumed that Gilles, who had been so strong all season and who had such obvious sex appeal for the target audience at home, might run away with it. And then it was time for the winner, and then, the unexpected.

Make that the really unexpected. The winners were Shawn and Mark, leaving the dominant, consistent Gilles in second place. Shawn will have to find room among her medals for that very, very ugly trophy.

How did this happen? For one thing, people love cute Olympians, as we’ve learned from Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Anton Ohno. For another, Shawn peaked at just the right time: her Monday night freestyle was her best of the season, while Gilles and Cheryl will forever relive that disappointing “Flashdance” business.

It’s important to close strong in this particular game, because people aren’t great at remembering past performances when they vote in a finale — they tend to vote for what you just did. Shawn and Mark closed strong, and they’re really the only ones who did. Nobody really votes based on a group paso doble — those Monday night votes were essentially “favorite freestyle.” And Shawn had the only one that earned a perfect score. In a weird way, then, the shocking decision makes perfect sense.

Linda Holmes is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com

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