The “Dancing With the Stars” ballroom is changing once again.
via: TVline
Banks broke the news herself in a TMZ interview on Friday, stating that she plans to devote more time to her business ventures, including her ice cream company SMiZE & DREAM.
“I’m really focused on business. Like crazy, crazy, crazy focused on business,” Banks said. “I feel it’s time for me to focus on my business and entrepreneurship, and also producing more TV, but behind the scenes. I think it’s time to graduate from the dance floor to the stock market floor.”
When asked to confirm if she was indeed departing Dancing With the Stars, Banks added, “I think it’s time. Don’t you think it’s time? Yeah, I think it’s time… I really, really want to focus on my business, and you can’t do that hosting a show. You’ll see me creating things, not just hosting things.”
Banks took over as Dancing‘s sole host in September 2020, after Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews were abruptly fired from the series earlier that summer. At the time, executive producer Andrew Llinares — who later departed Dancing ahead of Season 31 — called the hosting shake-up a necessary “evolution” for the show.
“Any show that has been on like this for many, many seasons needs to continue to evolve,” Llinares said during Banks’ first season as host. “It was about making the show feel fresh, feel new, maybe make it reach out to a new audience” while also “not alienating anyone who’s been watching the show for many, many years.” (Many Dancing viewers, though, gave Banks less-than-glowing reviews during her three cycles as emcee; she was later joined in Season 31 by Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum Alfonso Ribeiro.)
Dancing With the Stars moved from ABC to Disney+ last fall with a two-season pickup. There’s currently no word on Banks’ replacement for Season 32, or whether she will maintain her executive-producing role on the series.
