Dancing With the Stars’ Derek Hough Thought Assistant Was Celebrity Partner

Derek Hough almost needed to rename his show to Dancing With the Assistants. 

The Dancing With the Stars pro-turned-judge detailed an embarrassing moment in which he once accidentally mistook a celebrity’s personal assistant for the star he was paired with upon meeting them.

After a fan proposed a question for DWTS pros in a recent TikTok video, asking “if there has been a situation where one of you gets matched with a celebrity and when they walk in you don’t know who they are at the reveal,” Hough commented, “I’ve legit walked up to the PA of celebrity and said ‘are you ready to dance?’”

“My bad,” he joked, before noting, “Early days.”

Though Hough didn’t reveal which celeb he was referring to, some of his earlier partners included Jennie Garth, Shannon Elizabeth, Brooke Burke and Lil’ Kim when he appeared as pro on the dancing reality series from 2007 to 2016.