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Former DWTS Host Samantha Harris Claims Producers Asked Her To ‘Gain Weight’ & Look 'Pudgy'! WTF?!

Former DWTS Host Samantha Harris Claims Producers Asked Her To ‘Gain Weight’ & Look 'Pudgy'! WTF?!

This is ridiculous!

Samantha Harris was one of the first Dancing with the Stars hosts, starring alongside Tom Bergeron beginning in season 2 and running until season 9 from 2006 to 2009. But in a shocking new interview with former pro dancer Cheryl Burke on her podcast Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans, Samantha revealed things weren’t always great with producers behind the scenes. As in, they once asked her to… look “pasty and pudgy”?! WTF!

Recalling the unfortunate conversation, she dished on Monday:

“I remember — I won’t say who in the network or executive team said this — but I remember I got a note. 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.'”

Jeez…

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The show execs claimed viewers “need to be able to relate to you as the host being basically a complete dichotomy next to the dancers,” and so they requested she make a change, telling her:

“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.”

Who asks someone that?! It’s one thing for an actor to decide to undergo a physical change for a role, but she was the host of a freaking reality TV competition, she did NOT need to be changing her appearance for anyone! It should’ve been obvious enough that she wasn’t a dancer when she was, y’know, not dancing!

Interestingly, the 50-year-old didn’t clap back at the request. While she was naturally shocked, she actually agreed to it since she had a secret up her sleeve:

“Usually you’re told to lose weight. 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.”

Hah! That worked well for her! Regardless, it was likely still s**tty to be told to put on weight when she “took a lot of pride in the fact that I was tanned and toned.” As she should!

The TV personality eventually left the show — but the real reason for her departure was kept quiet until now! A public statement at the time claimed she was exiting to pursue other hosting gigs, but she told Cheryl the producers decided not to renew her contract to shake up the show. Oof. That must’ve stung — especially after all this mess.

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[Image via Samantha Harris/Instagram & MEGA/WENN]

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Dec 13, 2023 11:33am PDT