Okay, here it is, true confession.

I watched the finale of "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC last night.

I know. I should be spanked.

Don't know exactly why I chose watching it over reading a good book or even a good magazine.

Donny Osmond seemed preordained to win. I mean, come on, he had the entire state of Utah behind him.

But I was rooting for someone else, anyone else. Kelly Osbourne would have been a good choice. She worked hard to pull off her respectable performances, though her costumes were, um, odd, perhaps designed to cover up all that ink.

But, how could you not get behind her with that cheering section led by her iconic dad, the creaky and lovable Ozzy.

And there was singer Mya, the most talented of the dancers in the finale. But, the lithe and accomplished rarely win these things. It's really a popularity contest.

I confess there were other reasons I watched. I wanted to see how Whitney was doing. And she seemed to be ok, considering her descent into a bizarre personal hell in recent years. She sang twice.

Early in the show she did a nice job on her "Million Dollar Bill." Sometime later, she seemed to be comfortable and happy, if not fully engaged, in her "I Wanna Dance with Somebody."

The freak show aspect of reality TV was alive and well.

Tom DeLay, the 62-year-old former congressman from Texas who pulled out of the show early in the season with stress fractures in both feet, was back. He danced what they called a Texas two-step, and I thought he might go down with a broken hip at one point. But, he got through it, and the audience gave him a warm ovation. It seems the fans just love their old pols, and are very forgiving, even of those who resigned from high office amid scandal.

Actress Cloris Leachman, who looks good at 83 but doesn't move much, made a brief and unremarkable return.

There were a lot of tears throughout, and contestants fervently declared how much they had grown "as a person" during the series.

After he was declared the winner, Osmond plucked his wife from the audience and carried her to center stage where he stood between her and his pro dance partner, Kym Johnson, creating a classic American cheese sandwich.

As I flicked off the tube and toddled off to bed, I promised myself -- again -- I'm not going to watch any more of these TV talent contests.

Irv Dean is the Gazette's city editor. E-mail him at dean@dailygazette.com.