I Just Found Out What Derek Hough And The Dancing With The Stars Judges Do During Commercial Breaks, And It's Highly Entertaining

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I’ve generally known there are so many moving pieces to making sure a live TV production goes off without a hitch. There are BTS people making sure there’s space for commercial breaks, that the show doesn’t run over time, that seats are filled in the crowd and that the crowd is fully prepped and warmed up before the show officially hits the 2024 TV schedule. Even with this understanding though, I didn’t realize how much additional work the judges are putting into shows like Dancing With The Stars – at least not until Derek Hough showed us this week.

I already knew newcomer DWTS judge Derek Hough would be chock full of opinions on the reality competition series. But taking to Instagram on commercial breaks, he gave us some really cool looks at what goes on during the filming of the live ABC series. During one commercial break, he goofed off with fellow judge Bruno Tonioli. During a second in-between filming moment, he solved a Rubik's cube! Take a look.

(I know it looks impressive, but since there’s no video I regret to inform you that Hough is actually terrible at the solve and had a second Rubik's cube he busted out to pretend to have been competent. Sorry to spill your secret, dude.)

Despite there already being some frontrunners in Season 33, my favorite moment might just be when, during one break from the live ABC series, he, Alfonso Ribeiro and his fellow returnee sister Julianne Hough led the studio audience in a rousing sing-along of “Sweet Caroline.”

Unfortunately, he did not share the “Sweet Caroline” moment outside of his Stories (which have disappeared at the time of this writing), but you can see more of him getting ready and prepped for his first night in a brand new role on the long-running competition with this TikTok, below.

It’s nice to see Mr. Hough embracing this next step in his career. He, like his famous sister, was one of the more popular pros during his own run on Dancing With The Stars. He left the series in 2016 to pursue other opportunities and has worked with viral ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White, appeared on the hit series Nashville and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, toured myriad times on the road with new dance programs and more.

Joining as a judge in Season 33 feels like a natural progression to all of this, and I hope it becomes a good gig for years to come. So far, I’m absolutely loving the energy of the social content.