Maura Higgins climbs the DWTS leaderboard — and Peacock just made her an I'm a Celebrity host mid-season
The Love Island alum is quietly assembling the best two-week résumé in the ballroom — while NBCUniversal hands her the keys to an entire other franchise.
Maura Higgins is having the kind of month publicists describe as "a moment" and accountants describe as "billable." Two weeks into Dancing With the Stars season 35, the Irish reality star sits on the best combined judges' total in the cast — and she's carrying a brand-new Peacock hosting deal into the ballroom with her.
The math first. On premiere night, Higgins and partner Mark Ballas — her former Traitors castmate — delivered a Traitors-themed foxtrot to "Black Velvet" that opened with Ballas climbing out of a coffin and featured, in the audience, the apology Birkin Rob Rausch gave her after betraying her in the castle finale. It scored 21/30, the joint-highest of the entire two-night premiere and the first all-7s paddle set among the women. Higgins was genuinely stunned:
"That was the scariest thing I think I've ever done in my life."
On Viral Hits Night she added a 20 — two 6s and a 7 — for a two-week total of 41 out of 60. Nobody else in the cast has more: Jenna Dewan sits at 40, Harry Shum Jr. and Amber Glenn at 39. The woman who came in warning her partner about her two left feet is, on cumulative judges' scores, winning.
The other job
Meanwhile, over at NBCUniversal: Peacock ordered a new U.S. version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here — working title Get Me Out of Here — with Higgins and Rausch as co-hosts, ten days before she ever set foot in the ballroom. Yes, that Rausch. The Birkin man. Peacock looked at the most-discussed betrayal in Traitors history and correctly concluded it was a hosting duo.
The format details:
- The twist: celebrities are paired with a non-famous friend or family member and dumped into a jungle together, stripped — per the official logline — of "the perks, privileges, and creature comforts of celebrity."
- The stakes: the last duo standing takes a $100,000 prize; the series is slated for 2027.
- The history: this is the third American attempt at the British jungle juggernaut, after one-season flops on ABC in 2003 and NBC in 2009.
A quick career audit: Aftersun host, Traitors runner-up, DWTS points leader, franchise host-in-waiting — all inside NBCUniversal and Disney's reality ecosystems. Higgins isn't having a breakout. She's completing an acquisition.
She has said becoming a Dancing With the Stars contestant was something she "manifested." The manifesting continues Tuesday, when thirteen remaining couples dance again.
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