Five years after his shocking departure from “Dancing with the Stars,” former host Tom Bergeron will be returning to the ballroom as a guest judge on the show’s 20th anniversary episode.
Bergeron hosted the show for 28 seasons, starting with its premiere in 2005, until he exited the show in 2020. His appearance on Tuesday, Nov. 11, will be his first time returning to the show since he left after Season 28.
“It feels really good,” Bergeron said Tuesday on “Good Morning America” about his return. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
Bergeron left his position as the show’s host after being publicly critical of the show’s decision to cast then-President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary Sean Spicer in Season 28.
He will be joining the judges table as a guest judge alongside Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli.
“I’m anticipating that it’s going to be a wonderfully emotional, nostalgic night,” he said, according to People. “It’s so much fun to watch my friends do the work. I don’t have to throw to commercials. I don’t have to worry about the timing.”
Why Tom Bergeron left ‘Dancing with the Stars’
A year after his departure from the show, Bergeron shared more about why he left on a podcast with the late Bob Saget.
“In all candor, the show that I left was not the show that I loved,” he said, according to People. “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.”
He added that he wasn’t surprised that Season 28 was his last because he had started “butting heads” with the showrunners and producers.
More recently, he told Cheryl Burke on her podcast that the casting of Spicer was the final straw in his tenure as host.
According to Deadline, because of the approaching 2020 presidential election, he had expressed doubts about casting any politician on the 2019 season. After he was told about Spicer’s casting, he said that was “exactly what we said we wouldn’t do.”
“So at that moment, I knew this is probably my last season because of that one betrayal,” he added.
Bergeron shared that he offered to “take the season off,” but the producers responded by offering to let him out of his contract, per Deadline.
How to watch the 20th anniversary episode of ‘Dancing with the Stars’
The 20th anniversary special episode of “Dancing with the Stars” will air Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. MST on ABC and Disney+. It will also be available to stream live on Disney+ and on Hulu the next day.
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