It’s been 5 years since Tom Bergeron exited Dancing With the Stars after 28 seasons because the present’s host. Now, he’s hinting at a possible return to the ballroom.
In an interview with USA Immediately, revealed on Thursday, July 17, Bergeron revealed that he has been catching up with DWTS government producer Conrad Inexperienced. “He’s been largely answerable for getting the present again on monitor,” the TV persona mentioned.
Nonetheless, Bergeron shared that he turned down an invitation from Inexperienced to attend the present’s five hundredth episode particular throughout Season 33 final yr. “I mentioned that I’d get too fidgety sitting within the viewers,” he famous.
Bergeron went on to state that he pitched a possible DWTS return for himself to Inexperienced. “We did have lunch, and we did speak, and I provided a state of affairs the place I would come again for an evening in a sure capability,” he informed the outlet. “The mirrorball is again of their court docket.”
Again in July 2020, Bergeron shocked followers by revealing he was exiting DWTS after 28 seasons. “Simply knowledgeable @DancingABC will likely be persevering with with out me. It’s been an unimaginable 15 yr run and essentially the most sudden present of my profession,” he tweeted on the time. “I’m grateful for that and for the lifelong friendships made. That mentioned, now what am I imagined to do with all of those glitter masks?”
Adam Taylor / ©ABC / Courtesy Everett Assortment
ABC and BBC Studios added in an announcement that Bergeron’s cohost, Erin Andrews, would additionally not be returning because the present was headed in a “new inventive course.” The pair was succeeded by Tyra Banks, who hosted Seasons 29 and 30 solo and cohosted Season 31 with Alfonso Ribeiro. Julianne Hough took over Banks’ position for Season 32 and continues to cohost alongside Ribeiro.
Within the years since his remaining DWTS season, Bergeron has been candid concerning the occasions main as much as his exit. Throughout an October 2023 interview on former DWTS professional Cheryl Burke‘s Intercourse, Lies and Spray Tans podcast, he recalled how the casting of former White Home Press Secretary Sean Spicer for Season 28 induced a rift between him and the present’s producers.
“I mentioned, ‘Guys, that is precisely what we mentioned we wouldn’t do. Don’t go there,’” he recalled. “‘That is, you realize, not the precise time, play to our strengths, be the present that offers folks a break from all this bulls***.’”
On the podcast, Bergeron mentioned producers urged he “take the season off” and even provided to let him out of his contract. “That’s how strongly they felt… it actually pissed me off,” he mentioned.
Bergeron later launched a social media assertion saying he had hoped Season 28 “could be a joyful respite from our exhausting political local weather and freed from inevitably divisive bookings from ANY get together affiliations,” which ruffled some feathers.
“That they had screwed me. I’m gonna screw them,” he informed Burke. “However I wished the viewers to know this was a step too far to me. This was a step too far on the cusp of an election yr. And once more — had it been a Democrat, identical assertion.”
Dancing With the Stars will return for Season 34 later this yr. The introduced forged of opponents thus far consists of influencer Alix Earle, TV persona and conservationist Robert Irwin, and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ Jennifer Affleck and Whitney Leavitt.
Dancing with the Stars, Season 34 premiere, Tuesday, September 16, 8/7c, ABC