Can you believe it? Here we are at the conclusion of DWTS’ 10-week competition. This season sure seemed to fly by fast. But, as with all great things eventually they must come to an end...and that time is now.

Ricki Lake, J.R. Martinez and Rob Kardashian all want to get their hands on that coveted mirror ball trophy and this final three is a close one. At the conclusion of Monday’s show, Rob had captured first place with Ricki and J.R. following close behind with just three points separating the leader from the tied runners-up. Now, they face the home stretch as two more dances wait in the wings.

Let’s get to it!

9:01 PM/ET
Ahhh...there are the familiar faces of the Season 13 cast. It’s always nice to see everyone return for the finale. However, the music for the opening performance with the pros is setting a high bar for the rest of the show. They used the Black Eyed Peas’ “The Best One Yet” – well, we will see if that’s the case...

9:09 PM/ET
Musical guest Lady Antebellum turns up to sing the appropriate “Dancing Away with My Heart.” Yes! This is my favorite track from their Own the Night album, so I’m super pumped. I’m bummed they had to edit it down for TV though. Sad.

9:15 PM/ET
Here comes Round 1 in which the finalists have to perform their favorite dance from the season.

Ricki Lake and Derek Hough - Ricki and Derek choose their Psycho-themed tango. Excellent decision. I absolutely loved this dance when they did it the first time during Week 4. Once again, they did a fantastic job. Man, this is gonna be a close finale.

Rob Kardashian and Cheryl Burke – Rob and Cheryl select their foxtrot from Week 3. This was a definite improvement over the initial performance. Rob slipped a bit during the routine. That floor must be slick... It was an enjoyable performance overall, plus you gotta love Rob in fedora.

J.R. Martinez and Karina Smirnoff – J.R. and Karina picked their jive from the second week of competition for Round 1. Towards the beginning of the dance, it seemed like J.R. had a blank out. He just kind of stood there for a moment. That was kind of weird. Was he supposed to do that? Despite that and a slight misstep or two, the routine was high energy and fun.

Now, we get their scores. Apparently, the couples will be ranked with first place receiving 30 points, second place receiving 28 and third place receiving 26. Man, they sure make scoring complicated on this show...

Round 1 Scores:
1. Ricki and Derek = 30
2. J.R. and Karina = 28
3. Rob and Cheryl = 26

I can’t really argue with their rankings. Ricki and Derek would be my #1 couple for this round too.

9:35 PM/ET
Haha... the behind-the-scenes footage of the judges is cracking me up. They are a kooky bunch.

9:41 PM/ET
Elimination time! The final three gets whittled down to the final two. Gosh, this is tough. All three of them deserve to move on. Ricki and Derek and Rob and Cheryl seem to be in good shape when you just factor in the judges’ scores. Those audience votes are the wild card. Can all three of them win? Pleeeease!

Ricki and Derek are eliminated.

Wow. That is kind of surprising considering they won the previous round, but someone had to go. I really enjoyed watching Ricki and Derek throughout the season. You could most always count on them to be good week after week. Hats off to them!

9:49 PM/ET
Round 2 will be an instant samba. I kind of feel like this particular style of dance favors Rob and his Kardashian booty-shakin’ ways.

9:55 PM/ET
Some of the eliminated celebs from Season 13 return for a performance. Hello, Metta World Peace (we hardly knew ya!) and Elisabetta Canalis (sorry, wasn’t a big fan...). Is it just me or are they dancing better than they did during the competition?

10:04 PM/ET
Kristen Cavallari hits the ballroom floor with Mark Ballas. It’s a shame she didn’t go a little bit further in the competition; however, her return performance begs to differ. That was a bit sloppy.

10:11 PM/ET
Yes! It’s Chynna Phillips trying to redeem herself by performing the Mission Impossible-themed dance that proved to be her downfall. Her elimination in Week 4 was a bummer. I’m glad she got the chance to make peace with this dance.

10:16 PM/ET
Haha...Carson Kressley returns with a performance to Madonna’s “Vogue.” OMG, he’s hilarious. I loved his comedic relief this season. Apparently, the DWTS producers did too because they kept bringing him back on the show after he was voted off.

10:22 PM/ET
Nancy Grace is back with her dance from the music of Spamalot. This was a cute dance.

10:25 PM/ET
Chaz Bono teams up with partner Lacey Schwimmer and her dad for a routine. He seems to be poking a little fun at himself. Good for him. He’s just as terrible a dancer as I remember...

That’s nice that he has returned every week to support his castmates. What a sweet guy!

10:28 PM/ET
At the end of David Arquette’s performance, he makes off with the mirror ball trophy, which is true to his quirky personality. He’s another celeb that I really enjoyed getting to know this season.

Now, come back with that trophy, David...

10:31 PM/ET
Lady A is back. This time, they treat us to their smash hit “Need You Now.” I love the last chorus of the song when Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley turn face-to-face. Oh, the drama!

10:36 PM/ET
Hope Solo and Maksim Chmerkovskiy are back. Thankfully, they keep their attitudes - which raised its ugly heads during their last week on the show, if you recall - in check.

10:41 PM/ET
Finally! Round 2 commence...that seemed to take forever...

J.R. and Karina take on the instant samba first and are followed by the booty-shakin’ stylings of Rob and Karina. It seems like J.R. rose to the occasion this time, while Rob fell a little short. Rob seemed a little off. Perhaps he just ran out of juice? That’s a shame…but it apparently didn’t matter to the judges because they gave each couple a perfect score.

10:55 PM/ET
It all comes down to this…the crowning of Season 13’s champ!

Once again, both Rob and J.R. deserve to win. Rob consistently improved week in and week out and that was so awesome to watch during the course of the season. Meanwhile, J.R. was a frontrunner from the start of the competition with very few bad performances, plus he overcame an ankle injury during Week 9 to make it to the finals.

This is a tough call...

10:57 PM/ET
It’s J.R. and Karina!!! Congrats to them both! It’s nice to see Karina take the title since it’s the first time she’s ever won.

Well, that’s all, folks! It’s been fun. Look for Season 14 of Dancing with the Stars to premiere on March 19th, 2012 with a brand new cast. Until then...

Images: Adam Taylor/ABC

Nikita Palmer (@RTNowRadio) for Right Now Radio © 2011