'Splash' Crowns Its First Winner

Drake Bell is eliminated earlier on the May 7
episode, leaving Nicole Eggert and Rory
Bushfield taking the last dive for the champion
title.
The bruise
and injury
were paid
off when
one
" Splash"
contestant
got hailed as the winner of the inaugural
season of the reality show. When the episode
started on Tuesday, May 7 night, there were
still three celebrities left on the competition,
Nicole Eggert , Rory Bushfield and Drake Bell.
Bell was eliminated in the first round after
scoring 7s from judges David Boudia and Steve
Foley for his inward 1.5. Eggert, who scored
8.5s with a handstand somersault, and
Bushfield, who averaged 9.25 with his double-
double despite competing with a busted
eardrum, made it to the final round.
For the final dive, Eggert opted to do a back
double-double off the seven-meter platform,
but landed flat on her back. "I need help. I
hurt my back," she said after the botched
dive, but she managed to walk out of the pool
by herself.
Bushfield, meanwhile, did a front 2.5 off the
10m and entered the water head first. It was
an impressive dive and the audience, who got
to choose the winner, agreed as the majority
of them voted for Bushfield.
"I think I'm just inspired by my wife Sarah,
looking down," he said of what motivated him
during the competition. Bushfield's late wife,
freestyle skier and 4-time Winter X Games gold
medalist Sarah Burke, died in January 2012 in
a ski accident.