NEW YORK – The dance-off is over, voters have called in, and the fate of former pro football player Emmitt Smith and dimpled hunk Mario Lopez has been decided.
Now all viewers can do is wait until Wednesday night's finale of ABC-TV's "Dancing With the Stars" to find out the winner of this season's championship.
Smith and Lopez had matching scores from the three-judge panel after performing three routines in Tuesday's final showdown, so audience votes were the deciding factor.
Reality Check: Is Mario Really Modest?
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In the first round, both danced the samba to the same song -- Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" -- to heaps of praise.
"What's so great about you is you are the everyday man who became a dancer in 10 weeks," judge Carrie Ann Inaba told Smith, flanked by his smiling professional dancer-partner Cheryl Burke.
Inaba was also wowed by Lopez and his partner, Karina Smirnoff, saying the intense duo appeared to be enjoying themselves on the dance floor for the first time.
Lopez and Smirnoff came back strong in round two, performing a crowd-pleasing repeat of their favorite Latin dance, the paso doble. "It was full of fire. It was full of passion," gushed judge Len Goodman.
Backstage, Lopez did some gushing of his own. "What I'm going to miss the most is spending time with Karina," he told co-host Samantha Harris, adding that Smirnoff had made him a "better man."
Smith, who has retained his bulging biceps from his days as a pro football player, also generated heat during his second turn on the dance floor with Burke. "It looked like you've been doing this all your life," judge Bruno Tonioli said of their lively mambo.
Round three -- the freestyle -- was the most fun to watch because Smith and Lopez weren't scolded by the judges for being goofy and breaking the rules. Smith shuffled to MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This," breaking into that old-school dance fad "the Running Man" and wearing loose black pants.
"You just put MC Hammer to shame out there," Inaba said.
Lopez, he of the "I-know-I'm-sexy" smirk, was clearly born to bust a hip-hop move. "That was a hit parade on the dance floor! You ARE a true dance idol," Tonioli declared after Lopez's high-kicking routine, for which he earned a perfect score.
Both Smith and Lopez want to go home with the championship trophy and bragging rights.
"Keep voting," Smith told viewers. "Just vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote."
Reality Check: Is Mario Really Modest?
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