Kym Johnson To Become Dancing With The Stars Judge

Turns out Kym Johnson isn’t so much leaving Dancing With the Stars as she’s moving to a different role: That of judge.

The DWTS pro will move to the Australian version of the celebrity ballroom dance competition as a judge after announcing last week that she’ll be leaving the ABC show before its 17th season this fall.

The 37-year-old revealed that she’ll simply be switching roles, and couldn’t be happier about the new opportunity. The Aussie told Australia’s “The Morning Show” on Monday that she can’t wait to return home.

“I’m so looking forward to going back to Australia. When this opportunity came up, I jumped at it. It’s going to be very different for me being at the other side of the table, but I’m very excited.”

So what kind of judge will she be?

Kym Johnson suggested that she’ll have sympathy and understanding for struggling celebrities, but that she won’t curb her negative critiques.

“I’m not going to be horrible or a nasty judge. I’m definitely going to be encouraging, but I’ll tell it how it is. I’m not going to be a pushover. I know how much work the dancers and celebrities put into every week. So, I won’t tell them how horrible something is and not give them something to work on,” she said.

Kym Johnson joined the Australian version of Dancing With the Stars in 2004, and even nabbed the Mirrorball Trophy with TV presenter Tom Williams in 2005.

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