Why did Tom Bergeron leave ‘DWTS’?

Tom Bergeron‘s departure from Dancing With the Stars remains one of the show’s most surprising shake-ups. The beloved host led the ABC competition series from its first season in 2005 through 2019, becoming a familiar face for fans across 28 seasons. 

Bergeron left the series in July 2020, but now, five years later, he’s set to make a special return to the ballroom as a guest judge for the show’s 20th anniversary celebration on Tuesday, Nov. 11.

Bergeron recently told TV Insider that it’s “going to be great” to be back at DWTS. “I’m anticipating that it’s going to be a wonderfully emotional, nostalgic night,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to being in an environment surrounded by people I really care about on live television, where there’s no second take. It’s my happy place.”

Ahead of his long-awaited return, Entertainment Weekly takes a look back at Bergeron’s exit from DWTS, exploring why he left and whether it was truly his decision.

Why did Tom Bergeron leave DWTS?

On July 13, 2020, ABC and BBC Studios announced that Bergeron and his cohost, Erin Andrews, would not be returning for DWTS season 29. 

In a joint statement, the network and producers said, “Tom Bergeron will forever be part of the Dancing with the Stars family. As we embark on a new creative direction, he departs the show with our sincerest thanks and gratitude for his trademark wit and charm that helped make this show a success.”

When news broke of his firing, Bergeron wrote in a post on X, “Just informed @DancingABC will be continuing without me. It’s been an incredible 15-year run and the most unexpected gift of my career. I’m grateful for that and for the lifelong friendships made. That said, now what am I supposed to do with all of these glitter masks?”

Many longtime DWTS fans were unhappy with the decision to replace Bergeron and Andrews with Tyra Banks, but then-executive producer Andrew Llinares defended the move. “Any show like this that has been on for many, many seasons needs to continue to evolve,” Llinares said at ABC’s fall press day in September 2020, per Entertainment Tonight. “So I think changing that host is all about evolution.”

He added that the goal was to make DWTS “feel fresh, making it feel new and make it reach out to a new audience — as well as the audience that’s been there for years.”

What has Tom Bergeron said about his DWTS departure?

The next year, Bergeron opened up about what really happened behind the scenes of his departure, admitting that his final season hosting DWTS “wasn’t a pleasant” experience.

“In all candor, the show that I left was not the show that I loved,” he said on the Here For You podcast in September 2021. “So at the end of the season, that turned out to be my last season, I kind of knew. I took everything out of my dressing room that I really wanted. … It was kind of obvious that we were kind of butting heads [behind-the-scenes].”

He added that he wasn’t too shocked by the decision, saying, “I wasn’t surprised that that was my last season, so there was no blue period. Actually, I think Erin and I had more fun being fired than virtually anybody.”

In October 2023, Bergeron shared the real turning point that led to his exit. During an appearance on former DWTS pro Cheryl Burke’s Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast, he revealed that tensions spiked when they decided to cast former White House press secretary Sean Spicer for season 28, which ran from September to November 2019.

Heading into an election year, Bergeron urged the DWTS team to keep politics out of the ballroom. “I said, ‘Guys, this is exactly what we said we wouldn’t do. Don’t go there. This is, you know, not the right time, play to our strengths, be the show that gives people a break from all this bulls—,'” Bergeron recalled. 

After a producer and the showrunner insisted on casting Spicer, Bergeron offered to “take the season off.” They countered by offering to release Bergeron from his contract entirely. “That’s how strongly they felt,” Bergeron said, adding that it “really pissed me off.”

Bergeron was “furious,” and he vented his frustration publicly. Just hours after the season 28 cast reveal, he issued a statement via his social media criticizing the show for abandoning its role as a “joyful respite from our exhausting political climate.” 

The post caught ABC executives off guard, and that was intentional. Bergeron told Burke he didn’t give them a heads-up because “they didn’t deserve to know.” 

“They had screwed me. I’m gonna screw them,” he explained. “But I wanted the viewers to know this was a step too far to me. This was a step too far on the cusp of an election year. And again — had it been a Democrat, same statement.”

The backlash over Spicer’s casting helped Bergeron realize that his time on DWTS was quickly coming to an end. “At that moment, I knew this is probably my last season, because of that one betrayal,” he said. “Up until that point, there were people of character there.”

Why did Tom Bergeron decide to return to DWTS?

Bergeron previously told Burke he would “never” return to DWTS, but now he’s heading back to the dance floor. 

On Wednesday, Nov. 5, Good Morning America announced that Bergeron would appear as a guest judge for the show’s 20th birthday party episode on Nov. 11.

Bergeron cited Conrad Green, the original and current showrunner, as the reason he’s returning to DWTS after all these years. “Conrad has really done a lovely job of reaching out to me and offering an olive leaf,” he told TV Insider, “and we’re friends, and so, in the past 12 months, when this idea popped into my head, [I thought] ‘Yeah, I think I’ll be very comfortable spending a lot more than a minute there.'”

Where can I watch DWTS?

Dancing with the Stars airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ simultaneously. New episodes are available to stream the following day on Hulu or Disney+.

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