Former Dancing With the Stars Host Tom Bergeron Speaks Out on "Betrayal" That Led to His Exit

Former Dancing With The Stars host Tom Bergeron is opening up about his 2020 exit from the reality competition series. On Monday, Bergeron spoke about his departure from the series — which he had hosted since its debut in 2005 — during an appearance on Dancing With The Stars alum Cheryl Burke's podcast Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans. Bergeron said that he had spoken with series showrunners in 2019 regarding potential candidates for the 28th season and at the time decided that the show would be a "wonderful escape" from everything surrounding the 2020 election cycle, but when the show cast Donald Trump's White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, he was shocked.

"In the summer of 2019, I had two lunches—one with that showrunner person and another one with his boss," Bergeron said (via Deadline). "I said, 'Well look, 2019 is the threshold to an election year in America, we are a very divided country. Just nobody, of any party, don't go there—just make us the wonderful escape from all that divisiveness for two hours a week."

"And then a few weeks later, I get a phone call," he continued. "And they run down the list of who is going to be on the show, and this former showrunner says to me, 'You might want to sit down for this last one.' And then they told me who it was, the former press guy for Trump. I said, 'Guys, this is exactly what we said we wouldn't do. 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 bulls–t."

Bergeron went on to explain that he offered to take the season off because he felt so strongly about the show going the wrong direction and that in response, producers offered to let him out of his contract entirely. It's that that prompted Bergeron to release his 2019 statement criticizing Spicer's casting that led to him being dismissed from the series in 2020.

"So, I wrote the statement that I wrote, that did not name anybody, that did not name a political party," he said. "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."

He added, "So, at that moment, I knew this is probably my last season, because of that one betrayal. Up until that point, there were people of character there."

Would Bergeron Ever Return to Dancing With The Stars?

Bergeron also told Burke that while the bulk of his experience on Dancing With The Stars was positive, he would never return to the series now.

"No, never," Bergeron said. "Because it's not the same show, it's not the same world. I did it for a lot of years, there's no point. What would I prove?"