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He’s coming back home, folks.
Five years after his exit from Dancing with the Stars, original host Tom Bergeron is returning as a guest judge for the show’s 20th anniversary special, scheduled to air on Tuesday, November 11.
“It feels really good,” Bergeron said Tuesday on Good Morning America about his return. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
We guess time really can heal all wounds, huh?
Bergeron was let go by ABC back in 2020.
He broke the news of his own ousting on Twitter, saying back then he had been told by producers that he won’t help anchor Season 29 of Dancing with the Stars.
“Just informed @DancingABC will be continuing without me,” Bergeron wrote, taking the high road and adding:
“It’s been an incredible 15 year run and the most unexpected gift of my career. I’m grateful for that and for the lifelong friendships made.
“That said, now what am I supposed to do with all of these glitter masks?”
Bergeron had previously been critical of former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer having been cast on Dancing with the Stars, thinking someone who misled the country so horribly should never have been given such a platform.
As a guest on Cheryl Burke’s podcast, Sex, Lies and Spray Tans in 2023, Bergeron expressed his disappointment over this dismissal.
“I get a phone call,” he said on that episode of how he learned about Spicer.
“And they run down the list of who is going to be on the show, and this former showrunner says to me, ‘You might want to sit down for this last one.’ And then they told me who it was, the former press guy for Trump. I said, ‘Guys, this is exactly what we said we wouldn’t do. Don’t go there. This is not the right time, play to our strengths, be the show that gives people a break from all this bulls–t…
“And that really pissed me off.”
Back in 2020, co-host Erin Andrews also departed the program, and Tyra Banks followed as the next host.
It does seem fitting all this time later that Bergeron join fellow judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough, as Dancing With the Stars celebrates two decades on air with its 34th season.
The show — based on the British show Strictly Come Dancing — first began airing on ABC in June 2005.
