Former “Dancing With the Stars” co-host Samantha Harris claims she was advised to realize weight earlier than she was booted off the present.
The tv character — who starred on the ABC collection from Season 2 in 2006 to Season 9 in 2009 — spoke out about her time on the ABC collection alongside Tom Bergeron throughout Sunday’s episode of the “Intercourse, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast.
Harris alleged she was as soon as referred to as into a gathering with executives to debate a grievance that she was “getting too tan and too toned.”
“It was my interpretation they mentioned to me, ‘That you must be pasty and pudgy,’” she advised podcast host and “DWTS” professional Cheryl Burke.
She additional claimed the higher-ups advised her that viewers had been mistaking her for knowledgeable dancer, which was “complicated for them.”
“Often you’re advised to drop some pounds, I used to be really advised to realize weight,” Harris defined, including that she “took plenty of satisfaction” in her look.
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“Little did they know . . . I used to be pregnant so I wasn’t going to be tanning . . . and I used to be going to be gaining weight. So there ya go,” she continued.
Shortly after, Harris, 50, was allegedly referred to as into one other assembly with the present’s government producer Conrad Inexperienced, who let her know she wouldn’t be returning for one more season.
“He mentioned, ‘Look, we’re going into Season 10 and the community executives have determined that they want one thing to look completely different on the present,” Harris recalled.
“They want one thing actually completely different to maintain eyeballs watching. So, the factor that the community got here up with is, ‘Properly, the very first thing you see once you activate the TV are the hosts. So let’s change one in all them.’”
On the time, Harris additionally labored at Leisure Tonight as a correspondent and determined together with ABC to inform viewers she was leaving the present to concentrate on reporting.
Web page Six reached out to reps at ABC for remark, however we didn’t obtain a direct response.
Harris began as a choose on the present the identical yr Burke, 39, launched into her journey as a “DWTS” dance professional in 2006.
In November 2022, Burke introduced that she was leaving the present after 26 Seasons.
“I’m sitting right here filled with so many conflicting feelings in regards to the phrases I’m about to jot down…Tomorrow evening will formally be my remaining dance as a professional dancer on @dancingwiththestars,” she wrote on Instagram on the time, referring to the transfer as “one of many absolute hardest selections.”