Tom Bergeron is no longer holding back.
The former Dancing with the Stars host, who left the competition back in 2020, was a guest this week on Cheryl Burke’s podcast, Sex, Lies and Spray Tans.
For really the first time during this discussion, Bergeron delved into what transpired behind the scenes between himself and ABC producers, specifically how he asked four years ago for the show NOT to cast anyone from the world of politics.
Not with the country heading into a contentious election season.
Bergeron says now that he and executives came to an agreement on this topic… only for him to then get a “phone call from the showrunner and another producer,” both of whom ran down the list of the celebrities and public figures set to compete on the program.
“And this former showrunner says to me, ‘You might want to sit down for this last one.’ I said ‘Why?’ And then they told me who it was,” Bergeron told Burke.
It was ex-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, a man with a reputation for lying to American citizens on numerous occasions while filling this role.
Bergeron recalled that “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 bullsh-t.”
Alas, Spicer was cast that season.
Hoping to compromise, Bergeron said on the podcast that he volunteered to “take the season off,” which prompted the showrunner and the producer offered to “let you out of your contract if you want.”
And, with that, both Bergeron and co-host Erin Andrews were let go from Dancing with the Stars.
“That’s how strongly they felt,” Bergeron said, adding that it “really pissed me off.”
In October 2021, Bergeron was also a guest on the late Bob Saget’s podcast, opening up at that time as well about his departure from the series that made him famous.
“In all candor, the show that I left was not the show that I loved,” Bergeron said plainly during this revealing interview, adding back then:
“I took everything out of my dressing room that I really wanted … It was kind of obvious that we were kind of butting heads.”
In August 2019, while was still hosting Dancing with the Stars, Bergeron admitted that he wasn’t pleased with the casting of Spicer.
“My hope [was] that DWTS, in its return following an unprecedented year-long hiatus, would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations,” Bergeron said at the time, citing producers again and stating:
“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 told Burke that he tried to remain neutral after this disagreement (like “Switzerland”), but the decided to issue a statement to “let people know that they f—ing lied to me.”
He recounted:
“So 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.’ 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.”
When Spicer was announced on Good Morning America, Bergeron received numerous messages, while the public was outraged by the decision.
“So at that moment, I knew this is probably my last season, because of that one betrayal,” he says now. “Up until that point, there were people of character there.”
