Former DWTS Host Samantha Harris Claims Producers Wanted Her to Look Less Like a Pro Dancer and More ‘Pasty and Pudgy’

Samantha Harris shares some shocking claims about Dancing with the stars producers who allegedly asked her to change her appearance.

In the last episode of the series Sex, lies and spray tanning podcast, Harris — who co-hosted the ABC dance competition with Tom Bergeron from 2006 to 2009 — claims producers told her to “put on weight” and stop tanning in order to differentiate herself from the show’s professional dancers.

“I remember — I’m not going to say who at the network or the executive team said this — but I remember getting the message,” Harris, 50, told podcast host and former pro Cheryl Burke. “They actually called me into a meeting and they said, ‘So Samantha, she’s going to the next season…’ My interpretation was that they told me, ‘You have to be doughy and fat.'”

“But actually what they told me is that you get too tanned and too toned that the audience – and I’d like to give all of you who are listening as viewers a lot more credit than what they said – but the audience confuses you with dancers because you’re too tanned and too toned “, she said.

Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris host ‘Dancing with the Stars’ together.

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“And it’s confusing for them and they need to be able to relate to you as a leader who is really a complete dichotomy to the dancers,” she continued, “so we need you to stop doing self-tanning – which I’ll be honest, I’m as tanned as you – and get fat.”

Repetitions for Dancing with the stars he declined to comment when contacted by PEOPLE.

Samantha Harris hosts ‘Dancing with the Stars’ alongside Cheryl Burke and Ian Ziering.

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Harris said she was able to take the request in stride because she was pregnant with daughter Josselyn Sydney, now 16, without the producers’ knowledge.

“I say that they usually tell you to lose weight. I was actually told to gain weight,” she claimed. “Well, of course, I said, ‘Okay, sure, no problem. I covered it up’ because little did they know – it was too early to tell – I was pregnant, so I wasn’t going to sunbathe because I didn’t know what chemicals would get into my body and I would gain weight. Well there it is.”

Despite her secrecy, she admitted she was “absolutely stunned” by the alleged request, adding: “I was very proud of the fact that I was tan and toned.”

Samantha Harris hosts ‘Dancing with the Stars’ alongside Marissa Jaret Winokur and her professional partner Tony Dovolani in season six.

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After Harris left the series following Season 9 in 2009, she was replaced by Brooke Burke. Burke co-hosted with Bergeron through Season 17 in 2013 before leaving the series.

Sportscaster Erin Andrews then took over co-hosting duties and remained on ABC’s dance competition series with Bergeron until season 28 in 2019. At the end of season 28, it was announced that Andrews and Bergeron were leaving the show.

In September 2020, model Tyra Banks was hired as the sole host for seasons 29-31. She announced her exit from the series in March 2023, and shortly after it was confirmed that Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro would appear as co-hosts.

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Dancing with the stars can be streamed on Hulu and Disney+.

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Source: HIS Education