{"id":96796,"date":"2025-10-01T11:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T11:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/96796\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T11:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T11:55:08","slug":"oti-mabuse-double-strictly-champion-joins-rtes-dancing-with-the-stars-as-head-judge-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/96796\/","title":{"rendered":"Oti Mabuse, double Strictly champion, joins RT\u00c9\u2019s Dancing with the Stars as head judge \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two-time Strictly Come Dancing champion Oti Mabuse will join RT\u00c9<\/a>\u2019s Dancing with the Stars as head judge for its ninth season starting in January, while Laura Fox<\/a> will stand-in for Doireann Garrihy as co-host of the show.<\/p>\n

Mabuse succeeds Loraine Barry<\/a>, who announced last week that she was standing down from the role after eight years.<\/p>\n

From South Africa<\/a> and now based in the UK<\/a>, Mabuse is a Latin dance champion who went on to serve as a professional dancer on the BBC<\/a>\u2019s Strictly Come Dancing, winning the glitterball trophy with celebrity partners Kelvin Fletcher and Bill Bailey<\/a> in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

She will be joined by returning Dancing with the Stars judges Brian Redmond, Arthur Gourounlian<\/a> and Karen Byrne.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited to be joining Dancing with the Stars Ireland as head judge,\u201d Mabuse said. \u201cDance has been such a huge part of my life and to now have the opportunity to celebrate the incredible talent and passion that Ireland has to offer is such a joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who has been on both sides of the judging table from performing as a professional dancer on Strictly to sitting on panels on different shows, I know just how much heart, hard work and magic goes into every performance and how much this show means to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 said Mabuse would bring her professional expertise and \u201cindividual style\u201d to Dancing with the Stars, which is the international name for the BBC\u2019s commercially successful Strictly format.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIrish audiences have always been so warm, supportive and fun-loving, so I already know we\u2019re going to have the most amazing time together. I\u2019m looking forward to having the best time with my fellow judges and can\u2019t wait to bring my love for performance and, of course, a whole lot of sparkle, to this fabulous show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mabuse studied civil engineering in Pretoria, South Africa, before moving to Europe to develop her career as a competitive ballroom and Latin dancer. She joined Let\u2019s Dance, the German version of the Strictly format, for two seasons from 2015, and was part of the BBC show\u2019s professional line-up from 2015 until 2021.<\/p>\n

Her other television work includes being a judge on Dancing with Ice, a panellist on The Masked Dancer and a contestant on I\u2019m a Celebrity\u2026 Get Me Out of Here!, all for ITV. Her sister is Motsi Mabuse, a judge on Strictly Come Dancing.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 2FM and Ireland\u2019s Fittest Family presenter Fox has said she is \u201cbeyond thrilled\u201d to stand-in next season for Garrihy, who is expecting her first child.<\/p>\n

Fox, who competed on Dancing with the Stars last year, reaching the grand final, will present the Sunday night show alongside Jennifer Zamparelli when it returns to RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been a contestant on the show, I know exactly how nerve-wracking and magical it all is \u2013 the glitter, the graft, the laughs \u2013 and I honestly can\u2019t wait to be part of it from this side of the stage,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such an iconic show and a real full-circle moment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series is made for RT\u00c9 by independent production company ShinAwiL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two-time Strictly Come Dancing champion Oti Mabuse will join RT\u00c9\u2019s Dancing with the Stars as head judge for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[5071,18,117,19,17,62099,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-96796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dancing-with-the-stars","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-loraine-barry","14":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}