Derek Hough Is Ready to Make a Big DWTS Change

Longtime “Dancing With the Stars” cast member Derek Hough is on board with making a major change on the show. After Mark Ballas‘ guest judge appearance on the October 16 episode received such high praise, Hough said he’s on board with having Ballas on the judge’s panel full time.

“I’m absolutely here for it. I think Mark has a lot to offer. He has a lot of wisdom and insight and experience,” Hough told Us Weekly. “I would love it. We had a great time tonight. And I was honestly taking some notes. You know, he was saying some things, I was like, ‘I like that.’ He’s wonderful,” he added.

The show has gone back and forth when it comes to number of judges. For many years, Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, and Bruno Tonioli served in the role. However, a fourth judge has been brought in for a few different seasons — Julianne Hough and Derek Hough have both filled the fourth seat.

Following Goodman’s retirement from the show, producers decided to stick with three judges. However, it’s entirely possible that could change in the future.

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Mark Ballas Loved Judging on Season 33

After his time sitting at the judge’s table, Ballas took to Instagram to reflect on the experience.

“It was an honor to be at the judges table last night. After 20 seasons as a competitor I feel like I’ve done it all, but some how this little ballroom dancing show we all love still had a new experience up its sleeve for me,” he wrote.

“I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the dancing & I truly hope I gave the couples some tips to take with them as they move into the next phase of the competition,” he added.

He went on to thank showrunner Conrad Green, producer Deena Katz, and the rest of the DWTS team. He also thanked Hough, Inaba and Tonioli for welcoming him before thanking fans for their support. “Till next time,” he concluded.

Ballas unofficially retired from “Dancing With the Stars” following his season 31 win alongside Charli D’Amelio. During a performance on the DWTS Live Tour, Ballas told the crowd he was hanging up his hat. A fan uploaded the video to Twitter (now X).

“I just want to finish this by saying that this will be the last time you see me dance in this capacity. I’m coming to a close tonight. This is gonna be my last dance. I had the best time ever this season, and this freestyle was a great way to finish it off. … Thank you guys for a lifetime of memories,” Ballas told the crowd. “This is the last time I’ll be dancing with a partner,” he added.

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Fans Loved Mark Ballas’ Judging

Hough isn’t the only person who would like to see Ballas join the show in a full-time role as a judge. Several Reddit threads were started following the episode in which dozens of fans expressed the same thing.

“Mark Ballas, to me, would be the Len replacement we all want! Love him,” one person wrote.

“ABC PLEASE give this man a contract to be a permanent judge,” someone else said.

“Him and Derek would balance out CAI and Bruno very nicely. I think that CAI and Bruno have been getting more hate recently bcc their more emotional critiques are outweighing Derek’s technical critiques and ppl are getting frustrated. With Mark everything felt much more balanced and I was able to enjoy the fun that CAI and Bruno bring bcc they weren’t overpowering the critique,” a third Redditor weighed in.

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