Dancing with the Stars: Witney Carson becomes two-time Mirrorball champion after season 34 win

Witney Carson became a two-time Mirrorball champion on Dancing with the Stars after winning Season 34 with celebrity partner Robert Irwin, adding a 2025 title to her first championship from Season 19 with Alfonso Ribeiro.

The Dancing with the Stars Season 34 finale crowned Irwin and Carson after they posted one of the highest combined totals of judges’ scores and viewer votes, making Carson the latest pro to join the show’s small group of multiple Mirrorball winners.​

Dancing with the Stars Season 34 finale and result

The Dancing with the Stars Season 34 finale aired live on November 25 and featured five remaining couples: Robert Irwin and Witney Carson, Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy, Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach, Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten and Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa.

Over three rounds — Judges’ Choice, Instant Dance and freestyle — Irwin and Carson accumulated 89 out of a possible 90 points from Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli.​

Dancing with the Stars Season 34 winners were determined by combining judges’ scores with a reported 72 million public votes cast during the finale, with Irwin and Carson finishing ahead of the other four finalist couples.

The victory made Irwin the second member of his family to win Dancing with the Stars, following his sister Bindi Irwin’s Season 21 title, and confirmed Carson as a two-time Mirrorball champion a decade after her first win.​

From Season 19 to Season 34: Carson’s Mirrorball history

Witney Carson’s first Mirrorball Trophy came in Dancing with the Stars Season 19, when she partnered actor Alfonso Ribeiro to the 2014 championship early in her tenure as a pro.

Carson had joined the show as a troupe member in Seasons 16 and 17 before becoming a professional in Season 18 and then winning the title in only her second season as a lead pro, making her one of a small group to secure the Mirrorball so early in their Dancing with the Stars careers.​

In the years between her Season 19 and Season 34 victories, Carson repeatedly returned to the Dancing with the Stars finals without quite reclaiming the top spot.

She finished second with Milo Manheim in Season 27 and Kel Mitchell in Season 28 — a runner-up streak that co-host Alfonso Ribeiro has described as having “broken” her after the controversial loss to Bobby Bones and Sharna Burgess in 2018 — and has now reached eight finals in total.​

“I’ve become second place a lot of times”: Carson on chasing another title

Ahead of the Dancing with the Stars Season 34 finale, coverage highlighted that Witney Carson approached the season aware of her near-miss record and motivated by what a second win would mean.

Reflecting on the possibility of another Mirrorball, she said, 

“I’ve become second place a lot of times. It would mean a lot. It would mean a lot in the regard that I really feel like Robert deserves it. And I’m really not just saying that. I’ve been second so many times that I’m not okay with it by any means, but I just want it really bad for him.”​

Alfonso Ribeiro told Parade that he believed Carson’s partnership with Irwin had “brought her spark back” after the frustration of earlier seasons, citing how their work together helped her reconnect with the joy of the Dancing with the Stars competition.

He noted that the Season 34 finale would mark Carson’s eighth appearance in the finals, underscoring how the 2025 win breaks a long stretch of close calls and returns her to the top of the standings.​

Partnership with Robert Irwin in Season 34

Throughout Dancing with the Stars Season 34, reports and social posts documented the close working relationship between Witney Carson and Robert Irwin.

In a video shared before the finale, Irwin told Carson, “Witney, we have reached the finale. When we began this entire adventure, I had no clue what to anticipate, but I knew it was a dream come true,” and described the process as “a massive peak to conquer” that felt possible once he realized she would be his partner.​

Irwin went on to say she had “helped me become a better person in countless ways,” framing Carson’s role as extending beyond choreography into mentorship over the course of Dancing with the Stars Season 34.

In another note Carson posted, Irwin praised her for balancing professional demands with parenthood, writing that her “determination and kindness, even in the face of immense pressure, is truly inspiring,” and adding,

“I feel fortunate to know the Carson/McAllister family.”​

How Season 34 changed Carson’s DWTS résumé

With the Season 34 Mirrorball, Witney Carson now holds two Dancing with the Stars titles — Season 19 with Alfonso Ribeiro and Season 34 with Robert Irwin — along with multiple runner-up and third-place finishes that reflect a sustained presence near the top of the competition.

She has become one of the show’s most consistently successful pros, moving from a troupe role to a two-time champion with more than a decade of experience in the ballroom.​

For Dancing with the Stars as a franchise, Carson’s second win adds to a list of multiple-Mirrorball professionals. It extends a family narrative in which Bindi Irwin’s Season 21 title and Robert Irwin’s Season 34 win are now linked through Carson as a champion partner to the Irwins in separate eras.

As Season 34 concludes, her trajectory from early breakthrough with Ribeiro to a long-awaited second trophy with Irwin stands as a focal storyline in the show’s latest chapter.

Stay tuned for more updates.