Perfectionist Nicole Scherzinger was too upset she slipped during a complicated lift with partner Derek Hough during Monday night's freestyle dance on DWTS.
"There was one little mistake at the end of the freestyle but that goes to show you how far we've come — in the past that would have bothered Nicole so much but it's at the point now where, after the dance, we were happy and celebrating," Hough, 25, told UsMagazine.com after receiving 55 out of 60 in the finale.
PHOTOS: What you missed on last week's DWTS
Added Hough of the judges, "I saw their faces like 'Ohh!' because they wanted to give us 10s! But we started celebrating a little too early I think and lost those last couple of seconds. But it's alright! I think we did our absolute best, there were times in rehearsal when we didn't get through it!"
Scherzinger, 32, told Us she couldn't "be nervous" about the complicated routine: "This guy is fearless so I had to be fearless! I'd say I was scared and then we'd just do it! I listen to him!"
Hough says they "can't wait" for Tuesday night's finale, in which all the former competitors — including Kate Gosselin and Jake Pavelka, who will waltz with Vienna Girardi — will return.
VIDEO: Kate's disastrous dancing
Erin Andrews, 32, who tied with Scherzinger, explained her and Maksim Chmerkovskiy's decision to do a sexy freestyle dance with a bed.
"We wanted to do something different, we wanted to use props, we wanted to make it memorable," she said. "We wanted to do dancing, jumping, all that."
VIDEO: Erin's post-Dancing body
Added Chmerkovskiy, "Going into this final we thought there was no way we could compete with either of the other couples. We wanted to stand out. And then Derek and Nicole were amazing…. But we wanted something too that people would remember. It was cool."
In third place: Evan Lysacek and Anna Trebunskaya, with a 52 out of 60.
"The judges all season have been telling me to let go, have more energy, dive into the character — and I wanted to give them 200 percent tonight and show them I was listening," Lycasek told Us.
