Tom Bergeron returning to ‘DWTS’ for the first time since his 2020 firing

Tom Bergeron is making his grand return to Dancing With the Stars after a five-year absence.

The original host of ABC’s long-running competition series will return as a guest judge for season 34’s 20th anniversary celebration episode on Nov. 11. It’ll be Bergeron’s first appearance on the show since his surprise departure from the series in July 2020.

“I have to give all credit to Conrad Green, who was my first showrunner back when we premiered in 2005,” Bergeron told TV Insider about his return to the ballroom. “And I’m happy to say he’s back in that role currently, and boy has he righted that ship. ”

Bergeron and cohost Erin Andrews were dismissed shortly before season 29 in 2020 and were replaced by Tyra Banks. (Banks left after season 31, which she cohosted with former champ Alfonso Ribeiro, who has cohosted with Julianne Hough since season 32.) Bergeron had been vocal about his dissatisfaction with the direction the show took right before he was fired, which he has long claimed was due to him not wanting a political figure on the show and feeling “screwed” by the casting of Sean Spicer, President Donald Trump’s former press secretary.

Hours after Spicer and the rest of the cast were announced for season 28 in 2019, Bergeron issued a lengthy, shady statement — without naming Spicer directly — blasting the hit show’s execs for steering it away from being a “joyful respite from our exhausting political climate” free of “inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”

At the time, Andrew Llinares served as showrunner and executive producer of Dancing With the Stars, having joined in 2018. He exited in 2022 and was replaced by Green, the show’s original showrunner and executive producer who had departed in 2014.

Appearing on ABC News Wednesday to speak about his return, Bergeron said that Green had invited him to sit in the audience of the 500th episode last season, but he turned it down because he felt he’d be “too fidgety sitting there.” The Emmy winner then suggested returning for the 20th anniversary as a guest judge.

“If I really suck as a guest judge, they’ll never ask me back,” he quipped. “But if it goes well, I could see maybe coming back in that capacity ocassionally.”

Considering his refusal to keep mum on his perspective of how things went down, Bergeron’s return might seem a little surprising to some, but the Emmy winner said that it’s “the exact scenario” he wanted for his return to the ballroom.

“I said, ‘Look, I’m just gonna charge you scale, but I want a nice donation to the Motion Picture & Television Fund, and I come back as a guest judge,'” he told TV Insider. “If I came back and sat in the audience, I’d go crazy. I’m too fidgety and I’m sure I’d make some sort of trouble.”

He added: “Conrad has really done a lovely job of reaching out to me and offering an olive leaf, and we’re friends, and so, in the past 12 months, when this idea popped into my head, [I thought] ‘Yeah, I think I’ll be very comfortable spending a lot more than a minute there.'”

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In addition to welcoming back Bergeron, the 20th anniversary episode will also feature a special dance challenge with past champions and competitors for what the longtime host described as a “wonderfully emotional, nostalgic night.”

“And I’ll tell you, it’s so much fun to watch my friends do the work. I don’t have to throw to commercials. I don’t have to worry about the timing,” Bergeron told TV Insider. “I’ll be respectful and sensitive of what Alfonso has to deal with, ’cause I’ve been there. But I’m just looking forward to being in an environment surrounded by people I really care about on live television, where there’s no second take. It’s my happy place.”

Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+, and streams the next day on Hulu.