By Gavin Boyle
Longtime DANCING WITH THE STARS (DWTS) judge Tom Bergeron will return to the show for the first time since 2020 when he left after a casting outrage.
“People who’ve followed me for a while on social media know that for the first couple years after I was shown the door I wouldn’t even refer to the show by its actual name, I called it ‘Footwork with the Famous.’ But when my original showrunner Conrad Green came back as the showrunner and really kind of righted what had at that point been a rickey ship, he started extending an olive branch. It just rekindled in me, you know, all the fourteen, fifteen years of wonderful memories,” Bergeron told ABC News when explaining why he came back.
“Conrad had offered me on the 500th show the opportunity to sit in the audience and that didn’t feel right, I thought I’d be too fidgety sitting there,” Bergeron continued. “So I suggested, you know, for the 20th coming back as a guest judge.”
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Bergeron left the show in 2020 after he felt betrayed by the producers for including a political figure as one of the celebrities, something he had been vehemently against doing since the show started.
“At that moment, I knew, this was probably my last season. Because of that one betrayal. Because I’d been lied to by people who were in charge. Up until that point, there were people of character there,” Bergeron said in 2023. “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.”
Bergeron’s presence in the show has certainly been missed, and it has taken until this season for the show to regain the popularity it enjoyed before his departure. Season 34 has been the most popular season to date, and it has made the cast more accessible by providing unprecedented behind-the-scenes coverage. Last season’s champion Joey Graziadei is leading this change by hosting a podcast where he discusses that week’s episode with celebrities on the show.
“I couldn’t be more excited and honored to be joining the DANCING WITH THE STARS team in this new way, bringing audiences exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes content,” Graziadei said after the podcast was announced. “I have so many great memories and from my time competing (and winning didn’t hurt), so I can’t think of a better way to connect with contestants and bring deeper conversations and fun moments to the podcast space.”
DWTS’s 20 year anniversary will air on Nov. 11 and is expected to include many surprise additions alongside Bergerson’s return as a guest judge.
Read Next: Fans Still Love DANCING WITH THE STARS, Even After 34 Seasons
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