Heavy Sean Spicer talks about his controversial DWTS casting.
Season 28 “Dancing With the Stars” alum Sean Spicer was a guest on Cheryl Burke’s “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast. Spicer, the former White House Press Secretary for Donald Trump, was a polarizing figure at the time due to his politics.
On the March 11, 2024, episode, Spicer talked to Burke about his controversial casting on the show — and shared the request that he made with production before agreeing to do the show. The conversation took place with casting director Deena Katz and many of the executives over at the network.
“We had had a lot of discussions ahead of time. The biggest fear I had initially was, I said, you know, most of Hollywood and most of the entertainment industry are not particularly right leaning, to be fair. And so, I had said to them, ‘when the controversy comes, I need a commitment that ABC, Disney, etcetera, are not going to cut bait and say, we made a mistake in casting and we’re letting him go,'” Spicer said.
“‘I don’t need that. If you guys aren’t going to stand by me, then let’s just not do this. It’s not worth it. I’m doing this because I think it would be fun. It would be something cool to try. If you’re not going to stand by me, then let’s just call it a day,” he continued.
Spicer was paired with ballroom pro Lindsay Arnold. They were eliminated in 6th place.
Here’s what you need to know:
Sean Spicer Knew His Casting Would Be ‘Different’
Spicer was told that the network and executives were prepared for the potential fallout because they had cast controversial contestants in the past. However, he knew that his casting would bring a “different” kind of pushback.
“I said, ‘this is going to be different. The world is very political right now. And you’re going to get blow back,'” Spicer explained. The executives said they were prepared for what might happen and assured him that they had his back. At this point, Spicer decided to ink a deal to join the season.
Indeed Spicer’s casting received quite a bit of feedback from fans, some even calling for a boycott of the show, according to Time.
Moreover, there was one person in particular who was very unhappy with Spicer’s casting — host Tom Bergeron. Bergeron made it very clear that he didn’t want Spicer on the cast. It was at this point that Spicer asked the execs to release a statement in support of the cast as a whole — and the execs obliged.
“I wanted this to be, ‘we’re happy with the cast,’ not about Sean,” he told Burke on her podcast. He also released a statement saying that he was looking forward to competing.
Tom Bergeron Was Against Sean Spicer’s Casting & Ultimately Left the Show Because of It
Bergeron was very upset with Spicer was cast on the season. At the end of the day, Bergeron didn’t have anything specific against Spicer but he didn’t want any political figure on the show at all. Ultimately, casting went against Bergeron’s wishes and he ended up parting ways with the show.
“In the summer of 2019, I had two lunches — one with that showrunner person and another one with his boss. I said, ‘Well look, 2019 is the threshold to an election year in America, we are a very divided country. Just nobody, of any party, don’t go there — just make us the wonderful escape from all that divisiveness for two hours a week,” he told Variety.
“And then a few weeks later, I get a phone call, and they rundown 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 [expletive],” he continued.
Of his departure from the program, Bergeron said, “They had screwed me. I’m gonna screw them. But 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.”
Spicer said that he really liked Bergeron and thinks he should have stayed on as the host.
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