Getty Tom Bergeron revealed what he actually misses most about "Dancing With the Stars."
Tom Bergeron was a host of “Dancing With the Stars” for over a decade, and he shared a photo from his time on the show, jokingly sharing that he missed ziplining the most.
“I’m often asked what I miss about the dance show,” he wrote on Instagram on February 7, 2023. “It’s easy… the zip lining.”
He labeled the photo as a “#throwback.”
One current host and former Mirrorball champion, Alfonso Ribeiro, commented on the post, writing, “I remember when I got stuck. Not the best memory.”
Bergeron hosted “Dancing With the Stars” for 28 seasons. He was replaced by Tyra Banks ahead of season 29 of the show. Banks was joined by Alfonso Ribeiro ahead of season 32 of the ballroom dance competition.
Bergeron Was ‘Not Surprised’ He Was Fired From ‘Dancing With teh Stars
Bergeron announced that he was let go from his role as the host of “Dancing With the Stars” on July 13, 2020, in a tweet.
“Just informed @DancingABC will be continuing without me,” he wrote at the time. “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 these glitter masks?”
In an interview with talk show host Vicki Abelson, Bergeron said that he was not surprised that he got fired from “Dancing With the Stars.”
“The show had changed a lot for me starting in early 2008,” he said at the time. “The show I left was not the show that I loved. We had very clear, sometimes public, differences of opinion about the new showrunner and some of the execs and happily, I was at a point in my life and career where I didn’t have to just shut up and take it. I decided to go public with some concerns I had at that time and I think that set the stage for it. I kind of saw it coming.”
Bergeron Said ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Producers ‘Didn’t Know What They Were Doing’
In a July 2022 episode of Vicki Abelson’s podcast “Game Changers,” Bergeron shared his thoughts about what went wrong with “Dancing With the Stars” after Andrew Llinares took over as showrunner back in 2018. In 2022, Llinares was ousted as showrunner and replaced by Conrad Green, a decision Bergeron called the “best.”
“I think in 2018, there was a four-week athlete season or something like that that I just thought was not produced very well, which was my first indication [that things were not going the right way],” said Bergeron, adding, “Then the season in 2018, I think that was the one Bobby Bones won, they were changing the voting around. There were things where it just seemed like we were losing focus a bit, to me. I think the show got a little too big for its own britches sometimes, I think some of the production numbers were overly complex and the dancing kind of got lost in that.”
He shared that he thought the show may have been “starting to disrespect the pros.”
“When you get into, as I think they did in the couple of years since I’ve been gone, I felt that they were already starting to disrespect the pros,” said Bergeron, adding that when the professional dancers weren’t being announced with their full names or being allowed to do their own choreography.
Now, Bergeron has multiple TV projects in the work.
“Dancing With the Stars” is set to return in the fall of 2023.