{"id":357835,"date":"2025-11-05T16:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/357835\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:45:14","slug":"tom-bergeron-returning-to-dancing-with-the-stars-5-years-after-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/357835\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Bergeron Returning To ‘Dancing With The Stars’ 5 Years After Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFive years after his exit from Dancing With The Stars<\/a>, original host Tom Bergeron<\/a> is returning as a guest judge for the show\u2019s 20th anniversary special on Tuesday, Nov. 11.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt feels really good,\u201d Bergeron said Tuesday on Good Morning America about his return. \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0After hosting\u00a0DWTS\u00a0since its launch in 2005, Bergeron exited in 2020 after being publicly critical of the show\u2019s choice to cast then-President Donald Trump\u2019s White House Press Secretary\u00a0Sean Spicer<\/a>\u00a0in Season 28.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe told DWTS alum Cheryl Burke on her podcast at the time that he sat down with showrunners in 2019 and discussed potential contestants for the upcoming 28th season. At that time, he and showrunners agreed that the show would be a \u201cwonderful escape from that divisiveness\u201d of the 2020 election cycle.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn the summer of 2019, I had two lunches\u2014one with that showrunner person and another one with his boss,\u201d Bergeron recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018Well look, 2019 is the threshold to an election year in America, we are a very divided country. Just nobody, of any party, don\u2019t go there\u2014just make us the wonderful escape from all that divisiveness for two hours a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd then a few weeks later, I get a phone call,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd they run down the list of who is going to be on the show, and this former showrunner says to me, \u2018You might want to sit down for this last one.\u2019 And then they told me who it was, the former press guy for Trump. I said, \u2018Guys, this is exactly what we said we wouldn\u2019t do. Don\u2019t go there. This is not the right time, play to our strengths, be the show that gives people a break from all this bulls\u2013t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd that really pissed me off,\u201d Bergeron noted, saying it was this move that led him to releasing his 2019\u00a0statement criticizing Spicer\u2019s casting.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo I wrote the statement that I wrote, that did not name anybody, that did not name a political party,\u201d he said. \u201cIt merely said, \u2018I was told certain things when I was asked my opinion, they agreed, and now they\u2019ve thrown a curveball.\u2019 I even went so far as to say it\u2019s their right to do that. They\u2019re the producers of the show, if that\u2019s what they want to do they are entitled to do that. We will have to agree to disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo at that moment, I knew this is probably my last season, because of that one betrayal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBergeron offered to \u201ctake the season off\u201d. Producers responded by offering to let him out of his contract.<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-host Erin Andrews also departed the show after that season, and\u00a0Tyra Banks followed as the next host.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five years after his exit from Dancing With The Stars, original host Tom Bergeron is returning as a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":357836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[50089,171,174318,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-357835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dancing-with-the-stars","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-tom-bergeron","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115498105412749642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}