Tyra Banks has traded the ballroom for the boardroom.
The American TV personality has announced that he is stepping down from his hosting gig in Dancing with the Stars after three seasons at the helm of the competition show.
Banks, 49, dropped the bomb on TMZ on Thursday. While leaving a Whole Foods in Santa Monica, Calif., Banks said she was switching career gears to focus on becoming a businessman.
“I’m really focused on business,” Banks told TMZ.
He said he wants to focus on building his brand — an ice cream company called Smize and Dream — and doing more television, albeit from behind the scenes.
“I think it’s time to graduate from the dance floor to the stock market,” he said. “From the ballroom to the boardroom!”
When directly asked if he was really leaving Dancing with the Stars, Banks simply responded, “I think it’s time.”
“I’m an entrepreneur at heart,” Banks explained. “My heart, my soul, is in my business. It’s also in making new TV, which we’re doing.”
He said it was impossible for him to focus on his entrepreneurship while hosting a competition show.
Banks took over Dancing with the Stars hosting duties in 2020 after Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews left the show. Bergeron, 67, has hosted the dance program since its inception in 2005. Andrews signed on in 2014.
Banks have appeared in a large part of popular television series in recent years. He is the creator of the very popular competition show America’s Next Top Model, which premiered in 2003. She has also hosted The Tyra Banks Show and a season of America’s Got Talent.
Season 32 of Dancing with the Stars will likely air on Disney+ in mid-late September.
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