After graduating high school, Hough moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of acting, dancing and singing. She landed a role as a dancer on ABC’s game show, "Show Me The Money," and shortly thereafter, joined the "Dancing With The Stars" first tour as a company dancer. When "DWTS" dancer Kym Johnson injured her arm, Hough stepped in as her replacement and Cha Cha cha’d across America with season one competitor, singer Joey MacIntyre. She was also Assistant Choreographer on Gwen Stefani’s "Wind It Up" video. Some of her other professional accomplishments included International Latin Youth Champion, Junior Blackpool World Latin Champion and United States National Latin Youth Champion.
Hough’s first season on "Dancing with the Stars" (ABC, 2005- ) was quite successful. Her and partner, Olympic Gold Medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, were the season 4 champions. She took her next sports figure to the top in season 5, helping Indy race car driver, Hélio Castroneves to next win the title – back-to-back wins like fellow professional Cheryl Burke before her. Hough returned for season 6 with radio host/comedian Adam Carolla, but they were eliminated in the fourth week. In July 2008, Hough was nominated at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of Outstanding Choreography for her Mambo "Para Los Rumberos" (performed with partner Castroneves).
For season 7, Hough was partnered with "Hannah Montana" actor Cody Linley. In October 2008, she felt abdominal pains during their jitterbug performance and was immediately rushed to a hospital following the encore performance. She subsequently had surgery to have her appendix removed, causing her to miss several performances. However, Edyta Sliwinska stood in for her. Hough returned to the show, although the pair was ultimately eliminated in the Semifinals Competition. She appeared on the November results show dancing the jive to "Great Balls of Fire" with her brother for the "Design-A-Dance" contest. Hough and Derek were selected the favorite pros on the show by an online vote at ABC.com and won the honor of doing this special audience designed dance.
Coming off her success on the show, Hough began recording her self-titled debut country album and her single, "Will You Dance With Me" made it to No. 8 on the iTunes country charts. The album itself debuted at No. 1 on the country charts and No. 3 on the Billboard 100. While on tour with Brad Paisley to promote her music, Hough met fellow up-and-coming country singer, Chuck Wicks. Despite announcing after season 7 that she would not be returning to the televised ballroom, Hough returned a final time, only if she could partner with Wick. Despite being an adorable couple on the dance floor, they were voted off in the eighth week of the competition and came in 6th place for season 8.
Free of the show that had made her a star, Hough resumed her commitment to her music and watched as her career continued to skyrocket. In the summer of 2009, she and Derek were nominated for an Emmy for Best Choreography for their "Great Balls of Fire" routine, preceded by the announcement that Hough would portray the Lori Singer character of Ariel in the 2010 remake of the Paramount classic, "Footloose" (1984), opposite Chace Crawford as Kevin Bacon's character, Ren McCormack.