Dancing with the Stars favorites Derek Hough and Julianne Hough are hosting this year’s Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade, which airs at 10 a.m. ET Monday (December 25) on ABC. The special, which will begin streaming the following day on Hulu and Disney+, was prerecorded in early November, prior to Derek Hough’s wife Hayley Erbert undergoing an emergency craniectomy.
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Along with the Houghs, Mickey Guyton will co-host from Disney World in Orlando, Florida, while Jesse Palmer co-hosts from Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.
[RELATED: Derek Hough Says Wife Is “on the Long Road of Recovery” Following Emergency Brain Surgery]
For entertainment, Ariana DeBose, Chrissy Metz, The Smashing Pumpkins, Iam Tongi, Meg Donnelly, and Michael Bolton will perform, along with the Broadway and touring casts of the musical Aladdin. Additionally, for the 40th anniversary of the parade special, viewers will be able to take a look back at *NSYNC’s 1998 parade performance of “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays,” and Gwen Stefani’s 2018 “Winter Wonderland” rendition.
In November, Derek Hough shared an Instagram reel showing his busy day filming the parade special for ABC, among other engagements. First, he had a sold-out show in Hershey, Pennsylvania, showing him leaving the theater around 8 p.m. Then he had to travel to Orlando for the taping of the special. He arrived there at 2 a.m. At 8 a.m. the next morning, he showed the script for the special, followed by footage of the taping with his sister Julianne, finishing around 1:30 a.m. He then jetted off to Los Angeles for an episode of Dancing with the Stars. “It’s been a wild 48hrs!” he wrote on Instagram. “But when you love what you do, it’s pure joy!!!”
Hough and his wife have recently been going through an emotional time as she heals from her emergency surgery. Hough has been keeping fans updated on Instagram with posts about his wife’s recovery since the emergency craniectomy.
According to Hough, wife Hayley Erbert was diagnosed with “a cranial hematoma from a burst blood vessel” after she became disoriented. He posted she was in stable condition after the emergency procedure. Erbert has since had a skull transplant and continues on the road to recovery.
Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
