Giada De Laurentiis joins Dancing with the Stars for its 35th season, the Food Network chef confirmed in an exclusive interview with E! News after the official cast reveal at Disney HQ in New York City on September 2, 2026. She’ll be paired with professional dancer Alan Bersten for the two-night premiere on September 15 and 16 on ABC and Disney+.
Why Giada De Laurentiis Joins Dancing with the Stars Now
De Laurentiis had turned the show down roughly ten times before, according to her own account. “Dancing With the Stars has come to me maybe 10 times over the years,” she told E! News in a joint exclusive interview with Bersten following the September 2 cast reveal. “And I was always like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.'”
What changed, she said, was her 18-year-old daughter Jade starting her first semester of college. “This time, I thought, with my daughter pushing me and with my daughter out of my house, this is a really good time for me to go on a new adventure and push myself to do something I’ve never done,” De Laurentiis told E! News. She added that she tried to back out right before dropping Jade off at school, and that her daughter talked her back into it: “Mom! Pull up your boots and let’s go. Get it together.”
The 56-year-old chef, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu and has released 11 cookbooks, described the competition as entirely outside her comfort zone: “I do not have a stove. I do not have any of my tricks and any of my tools in my toolbox. So this is way, way out of my comfort zone.” She’s not the first celebrity chef on the show — Paula Deen (season 21) and Rocco DiSpirito (season 7) both competed and placed ninth.
De Laurentiis built her career on Italian home cooking, first as the host of Food Network’s “Everyday Italian.” If you want something in that spirit to make while the premiere gets closer, our homemade pizza recipe is a good weeknight option in the same style.
Is This Confirmed?
Yes. This isn’t a rumor: the casting was officially revealed by Dancing with the Stars/ABC at the season 35 cast reveal event on September 2, 2026, and De Laurentiis addressed it herself, on the record, in the E! News interview cited above. The season 35 premiere date (September 15–16 on ABC and Disney+) was also confirmed in that same reporting.
Quick Questions
- Who is Giada De Laurentiis dancing with on DWTS season 35? She’s paired with professional dancer Alan Bersten, a DWTS veteran who won the show in 2019 and has reached the finals five times.
- When does the new season premiere? Dancing with the Stars season 35 premieres with a two-night event on September 15 and 16, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.
- Has a celebrity chef ever done well on DWTS before? Not especially — Paula Deen and Rocco DiSpirito, the two prior celebrity chefs on the show, both finished in ninth place.
Update Log
September 3, 2026: Article published following the official DWTS season 35 cast reveal and Giada De Laurentiis’s exclusive interview with E! News on September 2, 2026.
