Former host Tom Bergeron is returning to “Dancing With the Stars” this month, roughly five years after his shock departure.
Bergeron will be on the guest judge’s panel during the 20th anniversary show on Nov. 11. The news was announced Wednesday morning following the show’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Night.
“It feels really good,” Bergeron said on “Good Morning America”. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
Bergeron hosted the show during its first 15 years on the air, but left in 2020 after he was openly critical of former Trump administration press secretary Sean Spicer being cast for the 28th season.
He had argued the show shouldn’t cast any political figures.
“Make us the wonderful escape from all that divisiveness for two hours a week,” he recalled later in a podcast interview.
Bergeron offered to take a season off, but was instead let out of his contract — but not until after the season ended.
“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,” he wrote on social media at the time.
Spicer was eliminated in week 9 of the show. Co-host Erin Andrews also departed the show after that season.
Tyra Banks briefly hosted alone before Alfonso Ribeiro joined her. He currently co-hosts with Julianne Hough following Banks’ exit.
