Allison Holker is returning to the show where she first met her late husband, Stephen “tWitch” Boss.
Fox announced on Wednesday, December 6, that Holker, 35, and former Dancing With the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy will be joining season 18 of So You Think You Can Dance, which is set to return in March 2024. The twosome will appear as judges alongside veteran judge Nigel Lythgoe and guest judge Comfort Fedoke. Cat Deeley will return as host.
“So honored and grateful to announce I’ll be judging for SYTYCD @danceonfox !!” Holker wrote via Instagram alongside a video of herself celebrating her new gig. “What an absolute dream come true!!! A full-circle moment that has changed my life in quite literally every way. IM HOME!! And sitting next to people I admire and love is just perfection!!”
Holker’s announcement comes nearly one year after the death of late husband Boss just days after the couple’s ninth wedding anniversary. Us Weekly confirmed in December 2022 that Boss was found dead at a Los Angeles hotel. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner later confirmed that Boss died by suicide. He was 40 years old.
“It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to share my husband Stephen has left us,” Holker told People in a statement at the time. “Stephen lit up every room he stepped into. He valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him. He was the backbone of our family, the best husband and father, and an inspiration to his fans.”
Holker and Boss met on season 2 of SYTYCD in 2006, when she was performing as a contestant and he was working as a choreographer. The pair reconnected when she returned for season 7 of the dance competition series as an All-Star.
Although she didn’t remember meeting him in 2006, Holker told Dance Spirit in 2012 that she found Boss to be the “cutest guy ever” when they reconnected four years later. After a night out together, the pair became inseparable.
“I saw him at the other end of the room, and he pointed and did this little ‘come here’ motion,” Holker recalled to the outlet. “We went upstairs and danced for three hours straight.” Boss, for his part, added, “We danced the entire night, and we’ve been together ever since.”
The couple tied the knot in December 2013 after three years of dating in a ceremony held at Lythgoe’s vineyard in California. They went on to welcome son Maddox in 2016 and daughter Zaia in 2019. Boss also adopted Holker’s daughter from a previous relationship, Weslie, in 2008.
Since Boss’ death, Holker has been candid about grieving while living in the public eye. “I still feel like the rest of the world where I’m still shocked,” she shared on the Today show in May. “No one’s ready for that moment and there’s no one that saw this coming. No one — and that breaks my heart too.”
After nearly a year of mourning, Holker put her dancing shoes back on for the first time in September, taking to social media to share the special moment. “Truly felt so good to dance again,” she wrote via Instagram alongside a video of her performing. “I was overwhelmed with so many emotions. I was both scared and excited. But dance has always been there for me … even now and I am so grateful for that.”
