Tom Bergeron Says ‘DWTS’ Screwed Him, So Now He’ll “Screw” Them

If the Dancing With the Stars management wants drama. Tom Bergeron is promising to bring it in the boat loads. Okay, let’s go back to the beginning.

Tom Bergeron On His Fallout With ‘DWTS’ And the Reason He Went Public With the Details

For 15 years, Tom Bergeron was the proud host of the popular TV show Dancing With the Stars, where celebrities are paired with pro dancers to battle it out on the dance floor.

For years, the show has continued to draw in millions of viewers each season, becoming a go-to show for families to relax to.

Full disclosure: Bergeron cared about the show so much that he got fired trying to make it even more delightful for the audience.

Leading up to his dismissal from the show in 2020, Bergeron recalled having a meeting with the producers and suggesting that figures associated with politics should not be cast for the upcoming season. At the time, they were all on the same page, until they weren’t.

“Make us the wonderful escape from all that divisiveness for two hours a week,” he said on the “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast of the reason he was openly critical of the show casting Donald Trump’s White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in the show’s 28th season.

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This was happening at the height of the presidential run, and Bergeron hoped that the show would be a respite from all the political debates going on.

A few weeks after Bergeron got them to agree not to cast any political figure, two producers called him to give him a heads-up that they had added Spicer to the lineup.

“And I said, ‘Guys, this is exactly what we said we wouldn’t do!’” Bergeron recalled saying. “And I would have responded the same way if they had booked Hillary Clinton, whom I voted for. ‘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.”

This pained Bergeron so strongly, he “offered to take the season off.” However, the producers countered it by offering to let him out of his contract entirely, even though he’d just renewed it for three more seasons.

“It really pissed me off … my temper kicked in,” Bergeron said. “I was at least going to let people know that they fucking lied to me.”

Tom Bergeron – Denounces ‘DWTS’ Decision To Cast A Political Figure During 2020 Presidential Run

After being let go, Bergeron naturally took to social media in a fit of rage and vented that all he wanted was for the season to be “a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations [but that] a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, ‘go in a different direction.

“We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it’s their call. I’ll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions.”
Bergeron went on to reveal that people were none too happy with Spicer’s casting, “The moment Spicer was announced, my phone started blowing up, people were outraged.”

‘They screwed me, I’m gonna screw them.’ 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.

When asked whether he gave the producers a heads up before releasing the statement, he angrily responded that “They didn’t deserve to know.”

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