Back in 2020, ABC shook up the drama on Dancing With The Stars (which is already full of shakes during Jive Week) by firing longtime host Tom Bergeron. At the time, Bergeron said he wasn’t really bummed about the news, which he had seen coming, but now, the host is looking back on it and, as it turns out, he’s pretty pissed off at what went down!
Bergeron told The Hollywood Reporter that in the weeks leading up to the show’s 28th season in 2019, he had meetings with several unnamed producers to ensure that they wouldn’t cast any political figures on the show. A few weeks later, two producers told him that they had cast former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on the show. This didn’t sit well with Bergeron.
The host tried to talk them out of it. He explained, “And I said, ‘Guys, this is exactly what we said we wouldn’t do!’ And I would have responded the same way if they had booked Hillary Clinton, whom I voted for,” Bergeron explained. He told the producers, “‘Don’t go there. This is not the right time. Play to our strengths. Be the show that gives people a break from all this bullshit.’ So, I was furious.” Furious enough to ask for a season off, but the producers offered to let him out of his contract altogether. Then, in August 2019, he blasted them on Twitter, which was still Twitter back then.
When asked about the initial tweets, Bergeron said that he only wanted to get back at the company for going against his word. “They screwed me, I’m gonna screw them,” adding that he wanted the producers to know that he wasn’t happy. “I wanted the viewers to know this was a step too far. This was a step too far on the cusp of an election year.” He added,
I wrote the statement that I wrote, that did not name anybody, that did not name a political party. It merely said, ‘I was told certain things when I was asked my opinion, they agreed, and now they’ve thrown a curveball.’ 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.
Still, the host stayed with the show for another season before throwing in the dance towel.“It wasn’t about my political beliefs. It was about my feeling about the show,” Bergeron said. “What is this show at this best? And what was happening was we were suddenly becoming this show at its worst,” Bergeron left the series after 15 years. Dancing With The Stars then became hosted by Tyra Banks, who left the show earlier this year, and now Julianne Hough is stepping in.
As for Spicer, he was eliminated after eight weeks but the memory of his neon green ruffled shirt will be ingrained in the brains of innocent victims for eternity.
