Erin Andrews to take her hard-hitting reporting skills to ... ‘DWTS’?

Erin Andrews is a well-respected sports reporter who is not afraid to ask the tough questions when necessary.

Which is why “Dancing With the Stars� may be her toughest assignment yet.

Andrews will need all the journalistic ability she can summon when she becomes the newest co-host on ABC’s longtime ballroom dancing competition series, a move that has been reported by several media outlets.

She will replace Brooke Burke-Charvet, who had held the role for seven seasons before announcing last week that she had been let go.

Doesn’t really seem like there would be too many hard-hitting questions to ask after a former child star’s attempt at the foxtrot or a retired athlete’s rendition of the cha-cha-cha.

Or maybe Burke-Charvet just made it seem that way.

Maybe a seasoned reporter like Andrews actually will bring respectability to a role that has been little more than a joke all these years. In her years with ESPN and now Fox Sports (where she will continue to work), Andrews is one of several journalists who have done just that for sideline reporting.

Plus, this is the woman who more than held her own while interviewing a ranting and raving Richard Sherman following the NFC championship last month. Do you think she’s going to accept a role as merely Tom Bergeron’s pretty sidekick?

And she’ll even have her own experience to draw from, having placed third in the competition back in Season 10 (although that didn’t really seem to help Burke-Charvet, who took home the mirror ball trophy in Season 7).

The 18th season of the show begins on March 17.