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Julianne Hough is ready to take the stage on “Dancing with the Stars” – this time as a co-host.
The two-time “DWTS” champion, who previously served as a judge and professional on the show, will take over for Tyra Banks, who started hosting in 2020.
USA TODAY has reached out to ABC and Hough’s reps for comment.
Controversial co-host Banks is leaving the show, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
“Dancing with the Stars,” which streams on Disney+, took to Twitter Monday to announce its new co-host, serving alongside Alfonso Ribeiro, who joined the show last year.
“We are so excited to welcome @juliannehough as co-host of #DWTS Season 32 along with @alfonso_ribeiro!” DWTS wrote, sharing an image of Ribeiro, 55, next to a photo of Hough, 34.
Hough also took to social media Monday to share the news.
“It is such an honor to be rejoining ‘Dancing with the Stars’ as co-host,” Hough wrote on Instagram, sharing the quote she gave Variety about the hosting changes.
Hough won the fourth and fifth seasons of “DWTS” with speed skater Olympian Apolo Ohno and racing driver Helio Castroneves, respectively. As a professional dancer on the show, her list of dance partners also included country artist Chuck Wicks and actor Cody Linley.
She was a judge on the show between 2014 and 2017 and was a guest judge in 2021.
Banks joined “DWTS” in 2020 as the program’s first Black female host and the first person to host the program solo.
Her three-year run wasn’t exactly smooth. From her early episodes, Twitter critics denounced her performance and called for the return of Tom Bergeron, who hosted the series since its 2005 debut, and Erin Andrews, who entered the ballroom for Season 18 in 2014, until Banks was named host.
“Change is hard, change is complicated, change is painful sometimes,” she told USA TODAY in 2020. “So I respect their challenge with change, but I also respect the multiple millions more people that are coming and watching the show with the changes too.”
“DWTS” has had other recent staffing changes: In November, professional dancer Cheryl Burke announced her departure, and Mark Ballas shared his decision to leave earlier this month. Judge Len Goodman said he would be exiting after Season 31, as well.
Hough’s resume update comes on the heels of other shows changes. Last year, the ballroom dancing competition show relocated to its current home to streaming on Disney+, after years of live airing on ABC.
While Hough’s history with “DWTS” is long, it’s not her only experience with reality television.
She was a judge on “America’s Got Talent” until her 2019 exited, around the same time former judge Gabrielle Union left, after a report from Variety surfaced citing “toxic culture” on set.
And Hough apologized for criticism surrounded the scrapped TV reality “The Activist,” after public backlash for turning activism into a competition.
Hough, who was slated to serve as a co-host along with Priyanka Chopra and Usher, said at the time that the show “missed the mark.”
“I heard you say that the show was performative, promoted pseudo-activism over real activism, felt done-deaf, like ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘The Hunger Games,’ and that the hosts weren’t qualified to assess activism because we are celebrities and not activists,” she wrote.
Hough also addressed her own controversial past: She wore blackface while dressing as Uzo Aduba’s “Orange Is the New Black” character, known as “Crazy Eyes,” for Halloween in 2013.
“Wearing blackface was a poor choice based on my own white privilege and white body bias that hurt people and is something that I regret doing to this day,” she said. “However, the regret that I live with pales in comparison to the lived experiences of so many. My commitment has been to reflect and act differently.”
Contributing: Jenna Ryu, Erin Jensen, Bryan Alexander
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