So You Think You Can Dance has tapped sitcom vet Leah Remini to fill the vacancy left by Matthew Morrison, who was ousted as a Season 17 judge in May.
Remini will make her judging debut on the Fox competition’s June 15 episode (9/8c), which will not only reveal this season’s Top 12 contestants, but will also mark So You Think You Can Dance‘s 300th episode. She joins Stephen “tWitch” Boss and JoJo Siwa at the dais.
“I am thrilled to join So You Think You Can Dance on its milestone 300th episode,” Remini said in a statement. “I look forward to guiding these incredibly talented artists through this competition as a fan of the show and a great admirer of dancers. I can’t wait to see the artistry that the contestants bring to the stage!”
The news of Remini’s hiring comes exactly two weeks after Morrison abruptly exited SYTYCD just days into his gig as a Season 17 judge. At the time, Morrison said in a statement that he “did not follow competition production protocols” after the audition rounds were complete, thereby “preventing me from being able to judge the competition fairly.”
The Glee alum then offered more specifics six days later, following a report from People that Morrison had been let go for sending “flirty direct messages” to a female competitor. He addressed the rumors in an Instagram video where he read aloud “the one message” he said he sent to a contestant: “‘Hey, it’s Matthew. If you don’t mind, would love to get your number and talk you through some things.’” (Morrison claimed that he and the unnamed contestant “both share a mutual respect for a choreographer” that Morrison has known for years, and that he “was trying to help her get a job as a choreographer on the show.”)
Though Remini is best recognized for her work on comedies like The King of Queens and Kevin Can Wait (as well as the Emmy-winning docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath), she does have dance experience to speak of: Remini competed on Season 17 of Dancing With the Stars, where she finished in fifth place, and she later returned to guest-judge a Season 28 episode.
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