Ex-“DWTS” cohost Samantha Harris says producers asked her to deglam, be more 'pasty and pudgy'

Harris claimed on Cheryl Burke's podcast that "Dancing With the Stars" brass wanted her to look less like the show's pro dancers.

Samantha Harris is opening up about a time she found herself way out of step with the producers of Dancing With the Stars.

Harris, who cohosted the ABC reality series from 2006 to 2009, said in a recent podcast appearance that DWTS brass wanted her to gain weight and stop tanning — to be "pasty and pudgy," as she put it — so that viewers wouldn't confuse her with the show's pro dancers.

"I remember — I won't say who in the network or executive team said this — but I remember I got a note," Harris said on the latest episode of former DWTS pro Cheryl Burke's Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast. "I got actually called into a meeting and they said, 'So, Samantha, going to the next season…' My interpretation was they said to me, 'You need to be pasty and pudgy.' But really what they said to me was, 'You're getting too tan and too toned that the viewers' — and I'd like to give all of you listening as viewers a lot more credit then what they said — but the viewers 'are confusing you with the dancers because you're too tanned and too toned.'"

Harris recalled being told that viewers "need to be able to relate to you as the host being basically a complete dichotomy next to the dancers," and so "we need you to stop doing any self-tanning — which I'll be honest, I tanned as much as you guys did — and to gain weight."

Representatives for DWTS declined to comment on Harris' remarks.

The former cohost said she was shocked to be asked to gain weight, though it wasn't too difficult a request given that she was pregnant. "Usually you're told to lose weight," Harris said. "I was actually told to gain weight. So of course I said, 'Okay, of course, no problem. I got that covered,' because little did they know — it was too early for me to share yet — I was pregnant, so I wasn't going to be tanning because I didn't know what the chemicals were that would be seeping into my body and I was going to be gaining weight."

That said, Harris noted that she "took a lot of pride in the fact that I was tanned and toned."

Harris cohosted Dancing With the Stars with Tom Bergeron beginning in season 2, and she left after season 9 in 2009. Her public statement at the time was that her exit was due to her desire to focus on her entertainment journalism hosting duties elsewhere. But she clarified on the podcast that producers decided not to renew her contract in an effort to shake up the show. Former contestant Brooke Burke replaced her from 2010 to 2013, exiting after season 17.

Following Burke's departure, sports reporter Erin Andrews stepped into the cohost role alongside Bergeron. They both left in 2019, at the end of season 28. Bergeron has since clarified that his exit was related to the casting of Sean Spicer and tension with producers.

From season 29 to 31, Tyra Banks took over hosting duties, sharing them with Alfonso Ribeiro in season 31. Season 32, which ended last week, featured Ribeiro as the primary host with former pro and occasional judge Julianne Hough stepping into the skybox as cohost.

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