Live at So You Think You Can Dance: And America's Favorite Dancer Is...

Backstage scoop from the winner and why Nigel thinks they had the edge to end up on top!

After nine weeks of dancers shedding their blood, sweat and tears on stage, America has chosen it's favorite dancer! After a lukewarm finale show on Wednesday from visibly exhausted dancers, it all came down to one last night of voting to crown the winner of So You Think You Can Dance!

So who won? How did the results show compare to the final performance show, and what did the winner have to say after the show? 

It's hard to believe, just like that (insert finger snap), season eight of So You Think You Can Dance is over! It was whirlwind summer of stiff competition that, in the end, left Melanie Moore, Marko Germar, Tadd Gadduang and Sasha Mallory dancing their hearts out to win America's vote.

Wednesday's performance finale was totally disappointing for the judges and fans alike who could see how tired the top four were. Maybe it was getting through one last night of competition or the pressure to win over voters, but it was definitely not a night of 'wow' performances. 

Fortunately, Thursday was a different story. With the final competition behind them, the entire top 20 was back and it felt like a high school reunion. It was a celebration of the whole season as we took look back at some of the funniest moments and got to see a second round of the show's stand out performances.

Sasha's breakfast dance with all-star Twitch, Melanie and Marko's statue routine and the Nappytabs  'Break Your Neck' hip-hop routine with Robert Taylor Jr. and Miranda Maleski were the favorites of the night  

At the end of the first hour, Cat Deeley announced the first round of results leaving Tadd to graciously accept fourth place, thanking everyone for their support and for the life changing experience.

Shortly thereafter, it was Marko's turn to accept third place leaving Sasha and Melanie as the final two. Standing on stage with only minutes left in the show, Melanie and Sasha stood hand in hand waiting to hear who had won $250,000, a cover of Dance Spirit magazine, a spot as a Gatorade athlete online and being the face of the G-series Fit campaign.

The proper suspense was built, and as everyone had been saying all season, Melanie came out on top with almost 50 percent of the over 11 million votes cast!

The audience was going wild, the top 20 was going wild, the judges were going wild and there seemed to be no hard feelings from Sasha.

After all the confetti and congratulations, we had a chance to chat with Nigel, who told us why he thinks Melanie had the slight edge.

"She is a great performer as well as a stunning technician," he said. "The edge she has to a certain degree is that she is a passionate dancer from her heart, but she's also a performer. That means even when she doesn't like it, doesn't feel like doing it, she can still perform. Sasha for me, feels it lives and if she isn't feeling it, it's harder to bring it all the way up for us."

We also got a chance to talk with Melanie who was simply glowing and said she wasn't expecting to win!

"I was ready to take second very graciously," she said. "In my head I really thought Sasha was going to win because she has improved so much over the competition and showed so many sides of herself. and she's such and inspirations to me. Getting to dance with her was such an honor that i was ready. I think all of us had a really even chance so being up and being named one of the final two I was like, 'Wait is this really happening?' and when she called my name i just started crying."

As far as her future plans, with her new found fame and small fortune, Melanie is keeping it simple…at least for now!

"I am going to, hopefully, go back to school," she said. "That's what I really want to do. I think there's so much to learn. I think I'm going to end up back in New York. It's sort of my place, but I'll definitely be here a lot. I just want to make a living dancing. If I'm dancing I'm happy. Literally you can put me in a random costume in the background dancing and I'd be so happy to do it because it's what I love."

And as far as those Dirty Dancing rumors? Well Melanie only had one thing to say about that.

"Kenny Ortega, give me a call!"