By TOM MAURSTAD (Dallas news) — Dancing With the Stars‘ Tuesday night finals showcased three last dances earning three perfect scores. It was the perfect summation of an 11-week competition that host Tom Bergeron revealed, just before announcing the winner, had been “our closest season ever, with less than 1 percent in difference between the final two competitors.”

And with that, the winner was named: Shawn Johnson, the gold medal-winning gymnast who, at 17, is the youngest competitor in the reality TV show’s eight-season history. To say the decision was a surprise may be overstating it a bit, but the diminutive gymnast did mount something of a come-from-behind campaign over the last few weeks to grab the title. In doing so, she swept past runner-up Gilles Marini, the actor previously best known as the naked neighbor in the Sex and the City movie. He was the presumptive front-runner coming into the finals, racking up the weekly wins and perfect scores.

But Johnson’s victory was a reminder that while dancing is important, Dancing With the Stars is first and foremost a celebrity popularity contest. As comedian Jeffrey Ross, a contestant last season, observed during his “roast” of this season’s cast (part of the two-hour special’s interminable build-up to the last five minutes), “no actual stars made it” to the finals. Dallas gal and former Cowboys cheerleader Melissa Rycroft was a former contestant on The Bachelor; Marini is a model-actor that some may recognize but almost no one had heard of. Only Johnson, with her Olympic past, had any real, bankable celebrity status. Since she and Marini tied with the judges, it was her support among viewers that made the difference.

A one-hour encore of Monday night’s show preceded the two-hour finale, which included two performances by musical guest Lady Gaga and the unveiling of next year’s new pro dancer: Ana Demidova. Finally, America had its new Dancing With the Stars champion, who now has a mirror-ball trophy to place beside her gold medals.

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