14 DAY TRIAL // Singer, actress, and dancer Julianne Hough is returning to ABC’s Dancing With the Stars with the upcoming season, rumor has it. Hough was a pro dancer on the show a while back but left to pursue an acting career full-time.
That didn’t exactly pan out as she expected. She did have moderate success at the box office in films, but the reality is that she could have done much better because she’s far from being a household name.
TMZ believes that this is why she’s returning to the show, this being a steady job that would also allow her plenty of exposure. The catch is that, this time, she’s coming back as a judge, not as a dancer.
“Sources connected with the show tell us they've made an offer to Julianne to become the 4th judge... the other 3 are coming back. We're told the 2 sides are in negotiations and are expected to make the deal,” the celebrity publication reports.
This doesn’t mean that Julianne would be putting acting on the backburner, though. If the deal goes through, she will be required on set only for a few hours a week, so she can still continue working in film.
Last year, Julianne sat on the panel of judges when Len Goodman couldn’t, so that was probably like a trial run for her and the producers. She stood up to pro dancer Mark Ballas, telling him that he needed to stop stealing the thunder of his partners, and this caused some friction on set but also a minor storm of controversy online, among loyal fans of the show.