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Dancing With the Stars Prediction: Who Will Take Home the Mirror Ball?

DWTS Season 16 Finalists

Tonight, May 21, marks the end of Season 16 of Dancing With the Stars, meaning another celebrity and professional dancer will walk out of the ballroom with the coveted mirrorball trophy. For the first time, the competition comes down to four finalists: Superbowl Champion Jacoby Jones and Karina Smirnoff, Disney Channel actress Zendaya Coleman and Val Chmerkovskiy, Country Singer Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough and Olympic Gold Medalist Aly Raisman and Mark Balls.

The final four is not surprising, as the entire season has been pretty predictable in terms of who would be going home each week. But now that the four best are left, the winner is not quite as obvious. Tonight’s decision will be based on judge’s scores from last night’s three dances, tonight’s final dance, and, most importantly, the viewers votes.

Check out our prediction of how it’ll play out!:

4th Place: Jacoby and Karina

Jacoby Jones and Karina Smirnoff

Throughout the entire season, Jacoby has been a step behind Aly, Kellie and Zendaya. Although he peaked in last week’s semifinals, getting his first perfect score, he didn’t bring enough to the finals to get ahead of the three ladies. Jacoby’s routines are clearly the most fun, charismatic and even energetic, but when it comes to the technicality of each dance, he is unfortunately not quite up to part with the girls.

Working in Jacoby’s favor, though, is his amazing and hilarious personality. Fan vote is half the battle, and Jacoby wins over the crowd week after week. Plus, those football players always seem to do well on this show (i.e. Donald Driver, Hines Ward, Emmitt Smith, etc). In terms of dancing alone, Jacoby wouldn’t be my pick to win, but it wouldn’t be a complete shock if he places better than where he is on the judge’s leader board after the fan vote is factored in.

3rd Place. Aly and Mark

Aly Raisman and Mark Ballas

It’s clear that Aly has grown and totally come out of her shell throughout the season, and if she’d been a finalist in some other seasons of the show, she might’ve even won. However, the gymnast just seems to fall a bit short compared to Kellie and Zendaya.

The factor working in Aly’s favor is her improvement. If there was an award for most improved…I think I’d give it to her hands down, because Kellie and Zendaya both started off so strong. Aly was always a top contender, but she really started proving herself over the last few weeks, and one of the important things the judges always like to point out is that the idea of the show is to improve and grow over the 10 weeks of competition. If fans are looking at it from that angle, she could get more votes than you’d think.

2nd Place. Kellie and Derek

Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough

When it came to choosing between Kellie and Zendaya, it was almost impossible for to decide. In fact, I still believe this can really go either way. Kellie literally looked like a professional dancer all season long, but particularly in this week’s finals. It honestly came down to the fact that, although I love Derek, I think it’s time for Val to have his first mirror ball. I think this will be a close one.

Kellie’s amazing freestyle will definitely work in her favor for tonight’s results, though. They say that the freestyle is basically what determines the winner. If you have the best freestyle: you won. Kellie, Zendaya and Aly all scored 30’s on theirs, but Kellie had, I think, one of the most memorable freestyle dances of all time. Derek is a complete genius. By keeping it simple and stripped down, we really got to see how talented Kellie is and that’s exactly what the audience and judges are looking for….and despite being a slower number, the routine never got boring.

Zendaya had an amazing freestyle, too, but Kellie’s could just push her over the top.

1st Place. Zendaya and Val

Zendaya and Val Chmerkovskiy

Had this been pretty much any other season, I would’ve worried that Zendaya would’ve been voted out far too early (a la Sabrina Bryan). She’s fairly unknown to the demographic of people who watch the show, and like Sabrina, viewers could’ve been turned off by the fact the she already has dance experience (hip-hop). However, being only 16 played to Zendaya’s favor, because she showed maturity beyond her years that I think even adults watching could relate to. She’s front-runner since Episode One, and nothing changed in Monday’s finals.

It was incredibly admirable that Val choreographed Zendaya’s freestyle to be so much more than a hip-hop routine like we were all expecting. All season long he’s showcased her versatility and proven why, as a pro, he deserves to be taken seriously and earn a spot in multiple finals, as Derek, Mark and Karina have been considered for years.

Val is the only pro dancer in the finals without a mirror ball trophy, so that extra factor has me pulling for this couple just a tiny bit, too. Normally, I’d assume the most votes generated from fans of the pro dancers would go towards Derek, but earlier this season, Val was chosen by the fans to participate in a special dance during a Results Show episode, so I think it’s a pretty general consensus that viewers are pulling for the younger Chmerkovskiy bro!

How do you want the results to play out!? Send us a tweet at @Star_News with your finale predictions.

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