Five couples are in the running to win the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy during the Dancing With the Stars season 33 finale — and they all have their eyes on the prize.
After the Tuesday, November 19, semifinals — which ended with the shocking announcement that no duo would be going home — the remaining contestants exclusively told Us Weekly how they’re mentally and physically preparing themselves for the finale.
“Obviously, it’s just going to be a long week,” said pro Jenna Johnson, who has been a frontrunner all season with her partner, Joey Graziadei. “There are longer dances, but I really want, like, our mantra to be joy. I just want this to be a joyful experience, because it’s over so fast and we’ll never get this moment back in time. So, I really want it to be a positive week for us. Although there’s a lot to accomplish, I just want it to be a moment we will never forget.”
Graziadei, 29, added that win or lose, he’s already tapped Johnson, 30, to choreograph his and fiancée Kelsey Anderson’s first dance at their wedding.
“It does not take a mirrorball to have that title. She has that title for everything she’s done,” said Graziadei, who is the first former Bachelor to make the DWTS finale. (Several former Bachelorettes have achieved the feat.)
Ilona Maher and her partner, Alan Bersten, have also formed an unbreakable bond this season. Bersten, 30, told Us that the pair are “gonna be in each other’s lives forever” and shared their strategy for the finale.
“It’s just going to be getting the absolute best out of Ilona, and she’s been giving that every single week. This week was exceptional,” he said. “Ilona was just able to be herself, and I think that’s what I’ve been trying to do this whole season.”
Maher, 28, whom judge Carrie Ann Inaba dubbed the most improved contestant of season 33 during the semifinals, chimed in to joke, “Only took nine weeks.”
Danny Amendola and Witney Carson, meanwhile, have done some wildly impressive lifts throughout the season and plan to finish out strong with the same wow factor. When asked what viewers can expect from the duo during the finale, Carson, 31, teased, “Something memorable.”
Amendola, 39, added that he and Carson get into a winning mindset by getting in “as many reps as we can” and staying “in the zone” no matter what.
“You kind of got to block out all the glitz and the glamor of being live on television and just kind of hone into your focus and all the preparation that you put in through the week,” the NFL alum said. “So, that’s really what we do.”
“Yeah, we just kind of lock in,” Carson echoed.
While Carson, Bersten and Johnson each have a mirrorball trophy win on their resumes, season 33 marks Brandon Armstrong’s first time making it to the finale since becoming a DWTS pro during season 27.
“It feels amazing. … I just feel like any word that I would assign to the emotional aspect of making it for your first time would fall short,” Armstrong, 30, told Us. He and his partner, Chandler Kinney, have been at the top of the leaderboard all season and have a real shot at winning the entire thing.
“What I’m focusing on is using an opportunity that we’ve been very blessed with to make sure that we are reiterating something that we are both passionate about, especially for people that come after us and have the opportunity to grow and develop,” Armstrong said of his mindset going into the finale.
As for how he’s going to hype himself up for the big night, Armstrong said he plans on “drinking a coffee, getting nauseous [and] trying not to throw up.”
Although Kinney, 24, seemed skeptical of Armstrong’s “coffee on an empty stomach” habit, she noted that the pair are otherwise aligned on how they prepare for showtime.
“We actually have to do a lot of things the exact same way,” she said. “We have our little space that we go into. We have our little zen mode. And just get into our own little world.”
The fifth duo competing for the mirrorball, Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold, fell to the floor with relief after cohost Alfonso Ribeiro announced at the end of the semifinals that no one would be eliminated.
Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold Disney/Eric McCandless
Arnold, 19, only became a DWTS pro last season and is also headed to the finale for the first time. She took to Instagram on Wednesday, November 20, to gush about the milestone and to praise her partner.
“I don’t know how to put into words the way I felt when I knew we had made it to the finale cause it was truly so special! … I just know for a fact that little Rylee is looking at where we are now with the biggest smile on her face and it’s so surreal getting to accomplish my biggest dream,” Arnold wrote. “I’m the luckiest to have Steve on this journey with me and I know for a fact we were paired together for a reason cause I truly have made a lifelong friend out of him and it has been the most happy, fulfilling and most amazing season I could ever ask for 🥹 So Steve THANK YOU!!!! WE DID IT!!!!!! 😭😭😭 now let’s go kill the finale!!!!🥳✨🪩🫶🏼.”
