DWTS Finalist Ariana Madix Adds Another Big Career Milestone to Her Resume

Heavy/Peacock/ABC Ariana Madix.

Ariana Madix added another first to her resume.

The “Dancing With the Stars” season 32 finalist will host the reunion for “Love Island USA” season 6— and her Bravo buddy Andy Cohen could not be more proud. Cohen, who knows a thing or two about reunion hosting, gushed over Madix during her August 13, 2024 appearance  on “Watch What Happens Live.”

“You’re taping your ‘Love Island’ reunion tomorrow,” Cohen said to Madix. “You are hosting it. You killed it on ‘Love Island.’ I just have to say I am so proud, is it okay for me to be proud of you? Am I allowed to be proud of you? I am just so proud of you, just watching you kill it all over the place.”

Madix humbly thanked Cohen and said she’ll need an earpiece like he wears when he hosts reunions.

“You’re going to do a great job at the reunion,” Cohen told the Bravo star.

Fans hit the comment section of a TikTok video of the exchange, with one fan noting, “This is so full circle for herrrr. Being sat at the reunions to being the HOST of one. Slay queen.”

‘Love Island’ Was a Dream Job For Ariana Madix

Madix, 39, has been booked and busy since March 2023, when her now-ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval was caught in a shocking cheating scandal with their  “Vanderpump Rules” co-star Rachel Leviss.

Madix received an onslaught of public support in the aftermath, as well as a long list of partnership deals and other career opportunities. She landed in third place on “Dancing with the Stars” season 32 eight months after the scandal.  Soon after, she announced she was cast in the lead  role of Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical “Chicago.”

But Madix told Entertainment Tonight that “Love Island” was truly a dream job. “I want to pinch myself every day,” she told the outlet in June. “I think the first couple of times that I went into the villa, or we were doing things here in Fiji, especially shooting the opening — my Britney Spears ‘Sometimes’ moment on the dock at the island — I feel like, it doesn’t feel like work. … I’m truly living my dream.”

Ariana Madix Is Eyeing Other Opportunities Amid the ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Hiatus

The future of “Vanderpump Rules” is unclear. In April 2024, it was announced that the long-running Bravo reality show would go on “pause” following nearly back-to-back seasons amid the Scandoval fallout. At the time, a source told Page Six the cast members needed a “break” from filming. “Everyone needs a moment to decompress after two very rough, intense seasons,” the insider told the outlet.

In April, Madix said she was unsure if she would return to the show. “I can’t or I won’t say [if I’m returning] but I think that ultimately, it would have to make sense for me,” she shared at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, per People magazine.

“Our show has always thrived, it’s always at its best when it is at its most authentic and its most real, and I have to be able to show up and be real and be authentic in order for it to make sense for me,” she added.

In the meantime, Madix is busy with a “Chicago” reprise and other projects. In an interview with CNN in March 2024, she said, “There’s a lot of things on the horizon that I am excited about.”