After four months of training and 11 nights of competition, grand illusionist Cosentino has won season 13 of Dancing With The Stars, beating out the hotly tipped favourite, singer Tina Arena and actress Rhiannon Fish.
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The former Australia’s Got Talent finalist was left speechless after hosts Daniel Macpherson and Edwina Bartholomew announced he and his partner, Jessica Raffa, were the winners.
“I can’t speak, I can’t speak,” he said shunning the microphone before Raffa took the lead.
“He’s been the best student I’ve ever had. He respected me and worked so hard,” she said.
The pair were the underdogs of the series after Raffa was hospitalised with a back injury a month ago. Despite earning a perfect 10 at the show’s premiere, the couple went on to attract harsh criticism from the judges, especially Todd McKenney.
“My mum would send me a text before every show saying ‘Please be nice to Cos’,” McKenney said after the couple finished their final dance on Tuesday – a contemporary freestyle number set to Des’Ree’s Kissing You, a song made popular by ‘that fish tank’ scene in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.
Cosentino and Raffa finished on top of the judge’s leader board with 104 points, while Home & Away star Fish and her partner Aric Yegudukin finished with 103 points after their final number – an upbeat freestyle piece inspired by the musical Hairspray.
Viewers votes were added to the judge’s scores to determine the winner.
Seven’s gaudy yet famed DWTS Mirror Ball is the second trophy Cosentino has secured this week. On Monday the 31-year-old was named the International Magician of the Year.
The finale, which ran for close to three hours, saw the return of eliminated contestants from the series, including former Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell, centrefold Jordan Stenmark and My Kitchen Rules “babe” Sophia Pou.
While the three grand finalists prepared and performed in the Judges Choice, Sudden Death Cha Cha and Freestyle rounds, Campbell performed her favourite routine with partner Jarryd Bryne, a number she affectionately referred to as “the bush pig dance”.
Pou, who was partnered with Rachael Finch’s former dance partner and now husband Michael Miziner, was pleased to be back in the spotlight, “I’m going to record an album next, a pop album. I’m a triple threat now.”
Tears flowed and the judge’s jaws went slack when the favourite, Tina Arena, was eliminated.
“Cos, you deserve to be here, but so did Tina... You do too though,” McKenney said after the Chains singer left the stage.
“I’ve sat on this panel for nine years and this has, by far, been the best season yet, purely because of the high standard of the dancing.”
New judge and former Dancing With The Stars US star Kym Johnson was similarly impressed with the level of professionalism.
“I performed for seven years in the US and what we saw here was at an international level,” she said.
Regularly attracting more than one million viewers each week the 2013 series has, yet again, been a national ratings success for Seven.
Dancing With The Stars will return in 2014.
