I never watched Dancing With the Stars until this season, and I didn’t start watching even then until the semi-finals. But I had to see if Donny Osmond could win it — especially with singer Mya in the competition. She is quite the fine dancer, and everyone “knew” she was going to walk away with it.

Imagine my surprise when I stayed up until 11 last night to watch the final announcement — and they gave the trophy to Donny. How cool is that?

I can only imagine the ensuing controversy. It’s begun already in the blogs I’ve read this morning. I have several thoughts about it:

1. It’s not completely about dance ability. Sure, it’s mostly about it, but dance is also theater. It’s entertainment, at least where DWTS is concerned. And while Mya (never heard her stuff, but I assume she is good) was very entertaining to watch and incredibly accurate, Donny was consummately entertaining to watch. He’s been in show business since he was, oh, five years old? That would be 1962. He’s got the “entertaining people” thing down to less than a second thought.

2. Fan base counts. Let’s face it, who has the better-known name, especially when you consider the demographics of the viewership? Their call-in votes were 50% of the decision, as I understand it.

3. Don’t go all Joe Namath and expect to be right. Guaranteeing a win for Mya — which was done every day by countless entertainment bloggers — is dangerous business. I think the producers look for that kind of trend and do everything they can to thwart it, because, as we all know, it’s all about ratings. Maybe viewers were thinking the same thing, and wanted to shake things up a bit by not voting for the odds-on favorite. I mean, why watch if everyone already knows the outcome? That won’t sell commercial time.

4. He’s Donny Osmond. For people my age and older, that means something. A *huge* something. Preteen girls in 1971 loved him; boys wanted to be him. He and his brothers were the whitebread America answer to the Jackson Five. Then they got their own show, added Marie, and became a national treasure. Sweet family with big white teeth, doing cute, hokey production numbers. I loved it. Still do.

So home run for Donny — the poster boy for “Over Fifty But Can Still Keep Up with the Kids.” Good job.

Fink out for the last day of school until Tuesday. Yay!

Photo credit: TV Guide