Dancing with the Stars finale: Where is Derek Hough? Julianne fills in
Ultimately, let’s go ahead and break this down here. Derek, the former pro-turned judge on the show, tested positive for the virus this past week. As we’ve seen over the past season, the protocol here is that this requires a lengthy period of time away from the show. The unfortunate thing for Derek is just that this happened for the very last episode of the season — one that is a celebration of everything we had to see all fall. No one is probably more disappointed about all of this than he is.
So in the absence of Derek, we saw tonight the return of an old favorite: Former Mirrorball Trophy winner and judge Julianne Hough. It seems like a perfect replacement, no? She knows ballroom extremely well and is a big name in her own right. We did wonder whether or not production would bring in another judge at all, mostly because for years all we had was Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Len Goodman.
Tyra Banks did mention early on in the episode that we’ll be hearing from Derek later on in the episode, and when we did, he looked happy, healthy, and upbeat. Provided that we get another season on ABC down the road, we tend to think that he’ll be back as a judge if interested. He does bring a combination of franchise nostalgia and also true dance credentials to the table; plus, he still does some other stuff throughout the year in addition to being at the judges’ table.
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Did you miss Derek Hough on the Dancing with the Stars finale?
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This article was written by Jess Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.