Heavy/Getty/ABC Julianne Hough.
Julianne Hough has a dream “Dancing With the Stars” contestant on her wish list, and she’s hoping to see her join the show for season 33.
Speaking with People magazine in May 2024, the two-time DWTS mirrorball champion turned co-host dropped a big name as a potential contestant for the celebrity ballroom competition.
“I feel like Kelly Ripa would be an amazing person on the show because she’s a dancer, she’s vivacious. She would pick it up,” Hough shared with the outlet. “She would have so much fun with it, she wouldn’t take herself too seriously. So I’m rooting for Kelly to come on.”
Ripa, 53, has co-hosted the morning show “Live” with various co-stars since 2001 and is a familiar face to DWTS fans. She often interviewed stars and pro dancers from the show.
The celebrity cast for “Dancing with the Stars” season 33 has not been announced. In May 2024, ABC confirmed the show will return this fall with Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro as co-hosts alongside veteran judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough.
Kelly Ripa Previously Said She’s Too Busy to Do ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Ripa has been asked about “Dancing With the Stars” in the past. In April 2023, the former “All My Children” star and her husband received a dance lesson from DWTS pros Val Chmerkovskiy and Jenna Johnson. In a “Live With Kelly & Mark” segment, the DWTS pros taught Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos how to do a proper jive. After Ripa picked the moves up easily, Johnson asked her, “Why are you not on ‘Dancing With the Stars?’”
Ripa replied, “Oh, because I’ve got this… this. I’ve got a lot going on,” she said about her daily morning TV show.
According to the U.S. Sun, Ripa was asked a similar question by a fan a few months later. After nailing a Bollywood dancing lesson from “Live” guest Sarina Jain, Ripa received a fan email that said, “Kelly, you need to go on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ I bet you would take the mirrorball!”
“I got enough going on, give me a break,” Ripa replied.
Consuelos agreed that his wife would do “really well” on the ABC dance-off.
Kelly Ripa Used to Dance on TV
Well before she was a morning show host, Ripa danced on TV near her New Jersey hometown. Ripa was a regular on the Philadelphia-based dancing show, “Dancin’ On Air.” She was also a dancer on the syndicated “Dance Party USA.”
Back then, a teenaged Ripa rocked long and poofy permed blonde hair and flashy ‘80s outfits. She was featured in many on-camera segments.
In a 1987 “Dance Party USA” clip that resurfaced on TikTok, a young Ripa told host Andy Gury about a “funny” thing that happened when she went to an audition for a TV commercial. Ripa revealed she was told by her talent manager that the ad agency was looking for “a 16-year-old girl with long curly blonde hair.” But when she got to the audition, she found out that the part was for “a middle-aged woman, about 40,” with short, brown, straight hair. “How embarrassing!” Ripa said.
In another clip, Ripa asked a young Rick Astley a question about being a teenager in England. Astley was 21 at the time and his song “Never Gonna Give You Up” had just been released.
In 2017, Ripa’s good friend, Bravo’s Andy Cohen, talked about her energetic personality—and love for dance. “She is someone who will dance on a cube at a club until 3 a.m., with absolutely no kind of alcohol or anything in her, just because she loves to dance,” Cohen told The Washington Post. “She’s got boundless energy. … She’s got a lot of stuff going on.”