Nobody puts Baby in the corner - not Sarah Palin's kid or a ruptured disc.

Despite landing in the hospital after injuring her back earlier that morning, Jennifer Grey and Derek Houghwon season 11 of "Dancing with the Stars" on Tuesday night.

"Pain you forget, but this I will remember for the rest of my life," she told ABC's Eyewitness News after the show.

Controversial finalist Bristol Palin and partner Mark Ballas were eliminated first after earning the lowest scores of the night while Disney star Kyle Massey and pro Lacey Schwimmer took second place.

"Congrats Jen,Kyle,Bristol,et al, for proving competition is GOOD!" Sarah Palin Tweeted after the show. "Remember: 'They're going to criticize anyway, so you might as well dance!'"

Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas performed a

solid tango Tuesday but fell short of the prize.

The finale concluded a controversial couple of weeks in which critics claimed Bristol - who was consistently at the bottom of the leader board throughout the season had only survived elimination because of voter fraud.

"Winning this would be a big middle finger to all the people out there that hate my mom and hate me," she said on Tuesday, only days after receiving threatening mail.

It turned out the viewers had another outcome in mind as host Tom Bergeron announced the show had received its highest number of votes ever Monday night, crashing ABC's website.

But ABC was ready for its close-up with a finale packed with memorable moments, many of them involving this season's eliminees.

David Hasselhoff returned in a red jacket with buoy in tow to perform a parody of "Baywatch." The pop star (at least in Germany) sang some some off-key verses from the show's theme song, "I'm Always Here," while throwing in some impressive dance moves with three bathing beauties.

A second skit involved the Situation becoming New Jersey governor in 2030. "Governor Sorrentino" went on a rant about his success before finally ripping off his shirt for one final dance.

Christina Aguilera also returned to the stage two days after performing at the AMAs to sing a number from "Burlesque," which had her wiggling in one spot as her back-up dancers performed impressive stunts. She later returned to perform an equally sedate version of "Beautiful" in a cloud of smoke.

Sports stars and former contestants Kurt Warner and Rick Fox performed a testosterone-filled dance-off while Margaret Cho and Florence Henderson laughed it up together.

Even Brandy and Maksim Chmerkovskiy came back after being controversially voted off in the semi-finals to perform their famous quickstep to the "Friends" theme song.

"Tonight was such a beautiful night! So much love in the DWTS building!!" Brandy tweeted after the show. "Congrats to all the finalist and thank you to all the fans."

The only two 2010 "DWTS" alumni who did not return were Audrina Patridge, who appeared to be under the weather, and Michael Bolton, who was performing in London.

"In bed sick watching dwts really bummed I couldn't be there :(" Patridge tweeted. "i was looking forward to performing one last time with @Tonydovolani and hanging out with everyone."

But there wasn't much hanging out going on. The finalists had two dances to complete before the final votes were tallied a repeat of their favorite dance and an insta-dance.

Bristol and Mark dusted off their head-banging tango to earn 25 out of 30 from the judges. Jennifer and Derek brought out their very first dance, the Viennese waltz, and earned their final perfect score of the season. And Kyle and Lacey resurrected the dance that turned things around for them, the tango, and were given a 26 out of 30.

For the insta-dance, everyone found out at the last minute that they had to dance the Cha Chan to Pink's "Raise Your Glass." While Jennifer and Kyle tied for the top spot, Bristol earned one point less before joining her peers in a bow.

Then, after a painful build-up toward opening the envelope, Bergeron announced that the winners of the night were...Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough!

The 50-year-old actress screamed and her partner hugged her so hard that the host worried he would further injure her back. She then confessed that she hadn't thought she would be able to compete that night and didn't "dare to want" to win.

"Can barely type, but MUST thank @officialdhough, my amazing husband and daughter and every single person who voted for us on DWTS," Grey later tweeted. "Yay!"

For her part, Palin, whose mother appeared to be a no-show for the first time in weeks, said that, for better or worse, "DWTS" was "a life-changing experience."