'Dancing with the Stars' Cutie Calls It Quits?

By Andrea Engstrom | Thursday, November 20, 2008, 3:53 PM

Julianne Hough

Jemal Countess/Wireimage.com

It's a very sad day for us "Dancing with the Stars" fans.

While on Ryan Seacrest's morning radio show (KIIS FM's "On Air with Ryan Seacrest") professional dancer Julianne Hough said that she will not be returning in the spring to compete for her third Mirror Ball Trophy. "I'm not going to be back next season," Julianne announced. "That's final."

Emmy-nominated Julianne Hough (view photos) became an instant fan favorite on the show, taking the grand prize with Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno her first time out (Season 4), then snatching the prize again with Helio Castroneves during her second go (Season 5).

She's beautiful, goofy, good-hearted and enormously talented. You can't help but love her. Even cynical radio personality Adam Carolla fell in love with Julianne after he was paired with her in Season 6. When the two were eliminated during Week 4, Carolla seemed genuinely disappointed and told the crowd, "I had the time of my life. I lost 20 pounds of fat and gained 105 pounds of angel. I love this girl." Last Tuesday night, Julianne and her partner Cody Linely were eliminated during the semi-finals of Season 7.

Julianne and her brother Derek Hough, also a professional on "Dancing with the Stars" (and a likely candidate to take the Trophy this season), come from a family of dancers and began competing at a very early age. Both Houghs have music aspirations, which is the reason Julianne has decided to leave the show. This morning she told Ryan, "It's because I really, really want to focus on the music and... be taken seriously a little bit, and I think it's hard to be on ‘Dancing with the Stars' and be singing and kind of get that confusion, and so I'm really going to focus on the music."

Julianne's self-titled album debuted at #1 on the Top Country Albums chart, and I'm sure she's going to give fellow reality star Carrie Underwood a run for her money.

Although she's definitely out this spring (Season 8 begins March 2009), there is still a chance that she might return next fall. "I won't be on 'Dancing' this spring season," she wrote on her Fancast blog last night. "I don't know about the fall. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see."

The show will go on. But it won't be the same without her.

Talk About It: Who is your favorite professional dancer on "Dancing with the Stars"?