‘DWTS’: Tom Bergeron Details Ugly Way He Got Fired From Show
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Former Dancing With the Stars host Tom Bergeron, who helmed the show for its first 28 seasons, has opened up about his firing and what “pissed him off” about the situation.
Appearing on Cheryl Burke‘s Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast, Bergeron spoke candidly to the former DWTS pro, revealing how Sean Spicer‘s casting in 2019 led to his falling out with the ABC competition series.
The veteran host explained how he’d met with DWTS producers to discuss the upcoming season and suggested that they not cast any political figures due to the contentious nature of the 2020 presidential election. Bergeron left the meeting thinking they were all on the same page with wanting the show to be an escape from politics.
However, he shared how he later received a “phone call from the showrunner and another producer” who told him the line-up of celebrities for the 28th season.
“And this former showrunner says to me, ‘You might want to sit down for this last one.’ I said, ‘Why?’ And then they told me who it was… the former press guy for Presiden Trump,” Bergeron recalled, referring to Spicer, the ex-White House Press Secretary.
“I said, ‘Guys, this is exactly what we said we wouldn’t do. Don’t go there. This is, you know, not the right time, play to our strengths, be the show that gives people a break from all this bulls***.”
Kelsey McNeal / © ABC / Courtesy Everett Collection
Despite Bergeron’s protestations, the producers didn’t want to budge, so he suggested he “take the season off.” In response, Bergeron claimed the showrunner and producer offered to let him out of his contract if he wanted.
“That’s how strongly they felt… it really pissed me off,” he continued.
While he was “furious,” Bergeron said he initially tried to keep the peace and play “Switzerland,” but eventually, his “temper kicked in.” In response to Spicer’s casting, the iconic host posted a statement on Twitter (now X) to “let people know that they f***ing lied to me.”
In the statement, Bergeron said he’d hoped Season 28 “would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations,” adding “A decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, ‘go in a different direction.”
The statement ruffled some feathers, though Bergeron told Burke he was just stating facts.
Adam Taylor / ©ABC / Courtesy Everett Collection
“So I wrote the statement that I wrote, that did not name anybody, that did not name a political party,” he explained. “It merely said, ‘I was told certain things when I was asked my opinion, they agreed, and now they’ve thrown a curveball.’ I even went so far as to say it’s their right to do that. They’re the producers of the show. If that’s what they want to do, they are entitled to do that. We will have to agree to disagree.”
Burke asked Bergeron if the producers knew ahead of time that he was going to post a statement. “They didn’t deserve to know,” the former America’s Funniest Home Videos host answered.
“They had screwed me. I’m gonna screw them,” he said was his thinking at the time. “But I wanted the viewers to know this was a step too far to me. This was a step too far on the cusp of an election year. And again — had it been a Democrat, same statement.”
While Bergeron stayed on for Season 28, he said he knew at that moment, “this is probably my last season because of that one betrayal… up until that point, there were people of character there.”
In July 2020, Bergeron took to Twitter to share his departure from the show, writing, “I have been informed @DancingABC will be continuing without me.” Shortly afterward, ABC announced that Bergeron’s co-host Erin Andrews would also be leaving the show.
The next day, model Tyra Banks was announced as the new host while also serving as an exec producer. Bergeron didn’t go into detail about his replacement on Burke’s podcast, but he did describe Banks as a “curiosity.”
Banks left DWTS earlier this year; the show is currently hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough.
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