Samantha Harris should have known better. The E! News correspondent and Dancing with the Stars co-host stated publicly (on numerous occasions) that she planned to appear on the popular ABC dance contest until mid-October, that’s when Harris was due to give birth to her first child.
Tonight is the big season premiere of the show and Harris will be a no show… with good reason. Her new daughter decided she didn’t want to share her mom with the rest of the country. According to E! News, 33-year-old Harris and her husband, financial wholesaler Michael Hess, welcomed daughter Josselyn Sydney Hess early Sunday morning in Los Angeles. The newest Hess weighed in at 6 lbs., 12 oz.
“Michael and I are ecstatic to have a little girl to welcome into our lives,” Harris told E! Online. “We can’t wait to introduce her to our family and friends.”
Harris has been writing about her pregnancy for Fitness Magazine and revealed that she and her husband decided not to find out the sex of their baby prior to giving birth. However, she did say that at a recent ABC party, celebrity dancer Marie Osmond used a “Chinese birthing theory” to determine the child’s gender, which involved asking Harris how old she was when she conceived as well as the due date. Osmond predicted Harris would give birth to a girl. Turns out she was right.
Marie Osmond, baby gender guesser extraordinaire… who knew?
Congrats to Harris and her family. Now, let’s get down to business. With Harris out for who knows how long (she would not say when she planned to return to the show or if we would see her at all this season) who will ABC replace her with? I’ve heard a few TV critics say that host Tom Bergeron really doesn’t need a co-host… that he is perfectly able to handle the announcer duties solo. However, I think the big wigs at ABC quite enjoy having a scantily clad female co-host sticking a microphone in the faces of sweaty competitors asking them if they agree with the judge’s scores.
So who will be Harris’s replacement? ABC refused to announce who would be taking her spot backstage. Instead, a spokesperson for the network released a statement that read: “Viewers will have to tune in to Monday night’s Dancing with the Stars premiere to find out.”
My guess: Lisa Rinna.
Who do you think it will be?