Hilarious Misunderstanding On DWTS Has Alyson Hannigan Asking If Julianne Hough Was A Baby In Footloose

Jullianne Hough and Alyson Hannigan in DWTS Season 32 Semi-Finals
(Image credit: ABC)

During this week’s episode of Dancing With The Stars, How I Met Your Mother’s Alyson Hannigan and her dance partner Sasha Farber nabbed themselves a place in the show’s finale after jiving to “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins. But, in a funny exchange with Season 32’s new host, Julianne Hough, the sitcom actress got super confused about how the 35-year-old could have been in one of the best movies of the ‘80s.    

And, hey she’s right. Hough was a toddler when 1984’s Footloose came out. What Hannigan must have been confused about during the hilarious moment was the fact that the DWTS host was in the 2011 remake. Check out how the interaction went as the co-host stood with the actress and her partner awaiting their scores for the jive: 

Sasha Farber: “Weren’t you in the movie Footloose?”
Julianne Hough: “Indeed, I was.”
Alyson Hannigan: “Were you a baby?”
Julianne Hough: “I was a baby.” 

Alyson Hannigan looked rather surprised when her dance partner pointed out that their host had been part of Footloose during the “Semi-Finals” episode. The actress must not know there was a remake as she hilariously asked Hough if she was “a baby” in the movie. But in true professional fashion, the co-host brushed off the comment, admitting she “was a baby,” likely referring to the fact that she was just 23 when the film came out. 

Now in Hannigan’s defense, the 2011 remake of Footloose flew under the radar when it came out. When it arrived in theaters, its box office was overshadowed by Shawn Levy’s Real Steel, which won the weekend instead and barely cracked the top 100 highest-grossing movies worldwide of that year, in 98th place (per Box Office Mojo). The original Footloose on the other hand was the seventh highest-grossing movie of 1984. While the original Footloose starring Kevin Bacon is more popular, the remake actually has its big fans.

Even so, after Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber spent the week practicing the jive for “Footloose,” one would have thought that Julianne Hough’s remake might have come up somewhere given her legacy with Dancing With The Stars. Oh well. If anything, the moment was an instance of humbleness for Hough, who won two seasons of DWTS before being a judge for the show and replacing Tyra Banks this season following her exit after three seasons as host.

This Tuesday, December 5, Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber will compete for the title of Dancing With The Stars champions against reality star Ariana Madix and Pasha Pashkov, The Bachelor’s Charity Lawson and Artem Chigvintsev, Jason Mraz and Daniella Karagach and Marvel star Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy, the latter of which had a perfect score in the Nov. 29 episode. You can catch up with DWTS now either with a Disney+ subscription or Hulu subscription

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.