Tyra Banks Says Accepting 'DWTS' Hosting Gig Was the 'Right Decision'

Tyra Banks
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The model replaced Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews.

Tyra Banks is loving her new job. The 46-year-old model appeared on Thursday's episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden and revealed that she has no regrets about accept the hosting gig on Dancing With the Stars, which she took over from longtime hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews.

"I'm having a really, really good time on Dancing With the Stars. It's bananas. I be changing clothes and there's dancing and people flipping and going home... I feel like I made the right decision," she said, before sharing who helped her make the decision to take on the job after months of deliberation.

"They called me and were like, 'Are you interested in this?' This was earlier this year. And I'm like, 'You're calling me and asking me this? I would never in a million years think that I'd be asked to host,'" she recalled. "So it took me months. I sat on it for months."

"I asked friends and finally I asked my mom. She was like, 'Girl, I'm the first person that told you about that damn show! I told you to turn on the TV. The stars is dancing,'" Banks continued. "She was the first person to tell me and I turned it on and couldn't look away. And so I said, 'Yeah, I think I can bring something to this.'"

When ET spoke to Banks ahead of the DWTS premiere, she opened up about further about how her mom influenced her decision to join the reality competition series.

"The sealer was my mom," she told ET. "I asked my mom, I was like, 'Mom, should I host and executive produce Dancing With the Stars?' She's like, 'Should you? Girl, please, that's Americana, they need you. This isn't even a question, honey.'"

As for what she hoped to bring to the show, Banks said "bringing everybody together" was the first priority.

"I think it's important to continue to make sure that younger people are watching the show with their older family members, that co-viewing, of bringing everybody together," she said. "So I have some ideas on having a little popular dance mixed [in], we have some ideas, we'll be testing that and seeing how people are feeling that."

"... [We're] trying to turn it up a notch! But not too much, because the show is a hit," she added. "I'm not coming here with a sledgehammer... that'd be dumb. So just adding some sprinkle pixie dust to it."

Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays on ABC.

 

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