MOST people don’t get the second shot at fame that Kristin Holt is getting.

Holt, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, will be a regular when the second season of “American Idol” debuts next month. And she’s a contestant from last summer.

Singing tunes like “Fallen” by Alicia Keys and Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” Holt made it into the “Idol” top 30 before viewers tossed her from the show.

This time, Holt will be on the other side of the contest joining the show’s three judges and host Ryan Seacrest as a “special correspondent.”

“Since I’m the only other girl on the show, Paula [Abdul] and I had an instant connection,” says Holt, 21. “I think she was ready to have another girl … to help take on Simon Cowell.”

On “American Idol 2,” Holt will interview contestants and, based on her experiences last year, become a sort of on-air companion.

“I’m going to be a shoulder for them to cry on,” she says. “Or a someone to laugh with.”

Holt, who grew up in Plano, Tex., got the job last September when the top 30 performers from last season’s edition of “American Idol” appeared in a reunion concert in Las Vegas.

She approached the show’s producers and asked them if there was room for her to join the cast of the new season. At the same time, rumors began to swirl that one of “Idol’s” co-hosts Brian Dunkleman would not be returning to the show.

Since joining the show about two months ago, Holt says she’s “been living out of a suitcase,” but is currently back home trying to finish up her degree in Political Science at Texas Christian University. “I always wanted to be the first female President,” she says.