Dancing With The Stars: All-Stars — The Finalists Weigh In On Thrilling Routines

The action in the ballroom reached a fever pitch on Monday’s “Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars,” and the finalists (first ever all-female group of contestants) – Melissa Rycroft, Shawn Johnson and Kelly Monaco – weighed in on the night’s high flying, emotional and stunning performances.

Access Hollywood caught up with Melissa, who received a perfect score for both of her routines with partner Tony Dovolani, after the show.

“It was a celebration. It was, ‘Don’t go out and be nervous… we all go home tomorrow,’” she told Access about her high-scoring moves. “I feel like knowing we’re still dancing tomorrow, it hasn’t hit me that this is the end. And I think tomorrow once we walk off the dance floor for the last time that emotion will hit me.”

Kelly was blown away that she and partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy ended the night with a 59-point total and in second place after performing a routine that borrowed heavily from the Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze’s “Dirty Dancing” finale number – including the iconic lift.

“We were like, ‘We did it! We did it!’… Val calls Mondays, ‘Miracle Mondays’ because for some reason a miracle happens every Monday. And it happened again,” she told Access. “There were a bunch of elements missing, something messed up every single time [we rehearsed, but] it was great. We couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Shawn and Derek Hough, who finished at the bottom of the finals leaderboard – with a total score of 57 out of 60, had no regrets about their dance routine choice – a quickstep from earlier in the season that was full of gymnastics and ended with the two falling off the “DWTS” stairs onto mats.

“When they first approach you and they say you can repeat whatever dance you want for the finale… you instantly go to your favorite one, you go to the one that makes the biggest impression of who you are and one you had the best time doing,” the Olympic gymnast told Access. “And that was definitely the first thing that we were thinking of and I mean we got kind of hit on the hand the first time and we knew we were going to get it this time.”

On Tuesday, the pairs will get one more routine to perform for a final judges’ score in an “Instant Dance” round, which will determine the Season 15 “Dancing with the Stars: All Stars” winner.

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— Jesse Spero