Dancing With the Stars judge and long-time pro dancer Julianne Hough will now return to the competition series as co-host with Alfonso Ribeiro in Season 32, replacing Tyra Banks.
Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough are confirmed as judges on the next season of the Disney+ show, marking a Dancing With the Stars reunion for the Hough siblings, who together have won more seasons of the series than any other pro. Season 32 also marks the first without Len Goodman, who announced his retirement in the Season 31 finale.
Banks,who announced her exit on Thursday, March 16, joined Dancing With the Stars as host while it was still on ABC in 2020, replacing Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews. She stayed as host through its final seasons on ABC, making the switch to Disney+ in 2022 where she was joined by new co-host Ribeiro. Banks opened up about her departure from the competition series to TMZ.
“I feel it’s really time for me to focus on my business and my entrepreneurship, and also producing more TV — but behind the scenes,” she said. “I think it’s time to graduate from the dance floor to the stock market floor… from the ballroom to the boardroom.”
Hough first appeared on Dancing With the Stars Season 4 as a professional dancer in 2007, winning the season with amateur partner Apolo Ohno. At the time, she was the youngest professional dancer to win the mirrorball trophy. She won again in Season 5 with partner Hélio Castroneves. Hough remained in the professional cast through Season 8, and then left to pursue other career opportunities.
After launching an acting and music career, Hough returned for guest appearances and ultimately made a full-time return as a judge for Season 19 in 2014. She stayed on the judging panel through 2017. The multi-hyphenate won an Emmy for Dancing With the Stars choreography in 2015 and has been nominated for other pieces on the show two other times.
Film and TV audiences have seen her in the Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong, dance special Step Into…The Movies with Derek and Julianne Hough, Disney+ documentary Becoming, Rock of Ages, the Footloose film reboot, and more, as well as Fox’s Grease Live, Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, and as a judge on America’s Got Talent. Hough made her Broadway debut in 2022 in the comedic play POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.
As of Disney+’s March 20 announcement, Dancing With the Stars will return to its three-judge format for Season 32. Longtime pro Cheryl Burke also announced her retirement from dance in Season 31, but expressed her keen interest in joining the judging panel in Goodman’s absence.
Mark Ballas also announced his retirement from the series on March 12 during the final stop of the Dancing With the Stars Live 2023 tour. He had just won Season 31 with partner Charli D’Amelio, and now after 20 seasons, he’s ready to back up his shoes and go.
