Heavy/ABC "Dancing With the Stars" news.
Tom Bergeron admitted there is one thing he misses about “Dancing with the Stars.”
In a June 2024 interview with E! News, the veteran TV host did not miss a beat when asked what he misses the most from his many years on the ABC celebrity ballroom competition.
“The paycheck,” Bergeron, 69, cracked. “There are some people I miss, but I’m really happy not hosting,” he added.
According to Us Weekly, Bergeron reportedly earned about $150,000 per episode as host of “Dancing With the Stars,” bringing his estimated salary to more than $1.5 million per season.
In 2020, Bergeron was fired from “Dancing With the Stars” after 28 seasons and was replaced by Tyra Banks. He has maintained friendships with some of the cast members, including pro dancer Cheryl Burke and current host Alfonso Ribeiro. In June 2024, Ribeiro presented Bergeron with the inaugural Sam Rubin Award at the Critics Choice Real TV Awards .
Tom Bergeron Said DWTS Changed A Lot Over 28 Seasons
ABC – Eric McCandless
Bergeron has said that he does not look back findly on all of his time on “Dancing With the Stars.” In a February 2021 Zoom interview with host Vicki Abelson, he admitted, “The show had changed a lot for me starting in early 2018. The show I left was not the show that I loved.”
Bergeron noted that he butted heads with some executives and a new showrunner. “I was at a point in my life and career where I didn’t have to just shut up and take it,” he added of his decision to speak publicly about casting concerns.
He made a similar comment in September 2021 when he was a guest on Bob Saget’s “Here For You” podcast. “In all candor, the show that I left was not the show that I loved,” he told Saget just three months before the “Full House” star’s death. “The end of the season that turned out to be my last season, I kind of knew [I would be leaving.]”
Bergeron also urged fans to still watch the show without him. “Understand that, sure, it’s different, but there’s still very, very talented people who are going to be on your screens,” he said.
Tom Bergeron Was Hurt By the DWTS 30th Anniversary Tribute
Bergeron has admitted that he did not watch “Dancing with the Stars” when he was the host from 2005 to 2020. “To be honest, I never watched it when I was hosting it,” he told E! News in the 2024 interview. “I watched it while I was there, obviously, but I never watched it as a TV show.”
In a 2023 interview on Cheryl Burke’s “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans” podcast, Bergeron admitted he was hurt by a snub that took place a year after he left the show.
“You know what really hurt the most,” he told Burke. “For their 30th season they did a whole special and they didn’t have one clip of me in it. There was not even a clip at all. I didn’t watch it, but I got all kinds of tweets and texts from people. And I thought, you know, that’s bulls [expletive]. That kind of stuff is really petty I think. So, I didn’t watch it but when I was told ‘There wasn’t even a clip of you.’ I thought okay, alright.”
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