‘Dancing With the Stars’ Drama: Tom Bergeron Says He Was ‘Screwed’ by Producers Before Surprise Exit

I think we can agree that former White House press secretary Sean Spicer appearing on Dancing With the Stars was a low point in American culture, but for Tom Bergeron, it was the last straw.

Bergeron, who hosted the ballroom dance competition series for 15 years, tried to stop it. As he recalled on former Dancing With the Stars dance pro Cheryl Burke’s podcast, per People, in the run-up to the 2020 election, Bergeron argued that the show should refrain from bringing on contestants aligned with either political party so that viewers could forget about the contentious state of politics while watching.

So when he got a call from the then showrunner and a producer telling him Spicer, who’d recently left Trump’s White House, was on the list of potential “stars,” Bergeron was staunchly opposed. “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 bullshit,’” he told Burke.

In what must have felt like a slap in the face, the network made it clear they’d rather have Sean Spicer than Tom Bergeron. The host offered to take the season following Spicer’s appearance “off,” and his bosses countered with an offer to let him out of his contract. Understandably, Bergeron was “really pissed…off.”

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