Giada De Laurentiis is finally stepping onto the ballroom floor. After turning down Dancing With the Stars about 10 times over the years, the 56-year-old Food Network personality has joined Dancing With the Stars season 35 and will dance with Alan Bersten.
The timing helps explain why the cast reveal drew attention on Sept. 2 at Disney HQ in New York City. Season 35 is already set to begin with a two-night premiere on Sept. 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, giving De Laurentiis little time to settle in before the competition starts.
De Laurentiis said her daughter Jade was the reason she finally said yes. The 18-year-old was starting her first semester in college, and De Laurentiis said that made this the right moment to try something new. She said the chance felt different from her work in the kitchen, where she usually has a stove, familiar tools, and a routine she knows well.
That lack of comfort is part of the appeal, and part of the risk. De Laurentiis said she already has learned a lot and already has sore muscles from rehearsals, proof that the show is asking something of her that TV and Food Network never do. Bersten, who placed fifth last season with Elaine Hendrix, is the pro tasked with turning that unfamiliarity into scores.
The harder detail is that even after agreeing, De Laurentiis nearly changed her mind again. She said she tried to back out right before dropping Jade off, but her daughter shut that down and told her to pull up her boots and get it together. It is the clearest sign that this season did not begin with a casting decision so much as a push from the person De Laurentiis seemed most likely to listen to.
She shares Jade with ex-husband Todd Thompson, and the decision lands at a moment when her daughter is leaving the house and her mother is leaving a long-held refusal behind. That is why Dancing With the Stars season 35 feels less like a familiar TV booking and more like a late, deliberate leap. The question now is not why De Laurentiis finally said yes. It is whether the woman who spent years saying no can turn all that hesitation into a run worth watching once the premiere begins.
