Tom Bergeron to return to ‘Dancing With the Stars’ with surprising new role 5 years after exit

Tom Bergeron is taking a seat on the Dancing With the Stars judging panel. The original host of the dance competition series, who exited the show in 2020 following a disagreement with producers, will return on Nov. 11 for the upcoming 20th anniversary show, DWTS announced on Wednesday.

Bergeron told ABC News on Wednesday that he had been teasing his comeback by sharing memories from his time on the show. However, Bergeron said that he didn’t always hold a lot of affection for DWTS after his 2020 exit.

“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,” Bergeron said. He explained that when his original showrunner, Conrad Green, returned to the series, it helped right what was a “rickety ship” for Bergeron. “He started extending an olive branch, and it just rekindled in me all the 14, 15 years of wonderful memories,” the former host said.

While Bergeron was originally invited to be in the audience for the show’s 500th episode, he declined and instead suggested returning for the 20th anniversary as a judge.

“Look, the technical stuff, the other three are gonna handle,” Bergeron said, acknowledging his lack of formal dance experience. “I’m into, ‘What did you do, did you move me in any way? Did you make me laugh, cry, goose bumps? Did you make me look for the exits?’”

Bergeron exited DWTS in 2020. Prior to his exit, he was critical of the show’s decision to cast Sean Spicer, former press secretary to President Trump in his first administration, for its 2019 season.

In a 2023 conversation on Cheryl Burke’s Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast, Bergeron, who hosted his final season with Spicer as a contestant, said that the Spicer decision came after he had a conversation with the producers in which he urged them not to cast anyone political in order to provide audiences with an escape from the news cycle. At the time, they seemingly agreed — but when Spicer was cast anyway, Bergeron felt lied to.

“I would have responded the same way if they had booked Hillary Clinton, whom I voted for,” Bergeron said.

The host said he was “furious” that the producers did not listen to him and offered to take the season off — at which time the producers offered to let him out of his contract. At the time, he had signed on to the show for three more seasons. His cohost Erin Andrews departed the show as well in 2020. After her exit, Andrews called the news a “surprise.”

Tyra Banks took over the hosting gig until 2023, after which former DWTS winner Alfonso Ribeiro and dancer turned actress Julianne Hough joined as cohosts.

In August, Bergeron spoke to TV Insider about his firing, suggesting it may have been for the best.

“The truth of it is, my plan was to leave after Season 30,” he said. “As circumstances played out, I left two seasons before. But those seasons were during COVID, so what would’ve been my last two — I would’ve hated them. Everything I loved about the show, the camaraderie, hanging out — none of that would’ve been available. I’m glad it didn’t end that way. And not surprisingly, the showrunner that I locked horns with didn’t last much longer anyway.”