Andy DehnartTom Bergeron, who’s hosted Dancing with the Stars since its first season in 2005, has been fired by the ABC reality competition, he said on Twitter. Co-host Erin Andrews, who’s been with DWTS since season 18 in 2014, has also been let go.
Bergeron, who won the 2012 reality TV hosting Emmy for DWTS, tweeted that he was “just informed [Dancing with the Stars] will be continuing without me.”
The tweet continued with praise for the show and his experience: “It’s been an incredible 15 year run and the most unexpected gift of my career,” he wrote. “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?”
When a fan asked if Tom was going to be a contestant on Dancing with the Stars season 29, he wrote, “Um…no.”
Bergeron was a contestant on The Masked Singer season three this spring.
Previously, he hosted America’s Funniest Home Videos for 14 years, and has also written a book about his time in Hollywood: I’m Hosting as Fast as I Can!: ZEN and the Art of Staying Sane in Hollywood.
DWTS has had four co-hosts in its 15 years—Lisa Canning, Samantha Harris, Brooke Burke, and Erin Andrews—and Tom is one of the original four cast members, along with judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Len Goodman.
While many long-running network reality shows have dumped or changed co-hosts, all of the shows from the early wave of reality TV in the 2000s that are still on the air have their original hosts: Jeff Probst is on Survivor, Julie Chen on Big Brother, Phil Keoghan on The Amazing Race, Ryan Seacrest on American Idol, Chris Harrison on The Bachelor.
America’s Got Talent, which premiered in 2006, has changed hosts several times, but it changed hosts twice in the first three years, including after its first season, so a host never really defined the show in the way the other hosts did.
That makes Tom the rare host of an early, classic network reality series to leave and presumably be replaced. At the very least, he was a central part of the show, with his improvised jokes and reactions holding the show’s absurdity and seriousness together.
Why were Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews fired from DWTS?
No reason was given for Tom’s departure, which was not a mutual decision, according to his tweets.
Last fall, Bergeron publicly objected to the show’s decision to cast unrepentant liar Sean Spicer on the fall season, but continued to host the show and only made light jokes about it.
Update: ABC did confirm that both Tom and co-host Erin Andrews had been fired shortly after Tom tweeted.
Erin Andrews, who was a contestant in DWTS season 10, placing third. Four years later, she replaced Brooke Burke as co-host, interviewing the contestants after their performances.
She wrote on Twitter, “Thank you ABC and the entire Dancing with the Stars family for 6 memorable seasons. Those years wouldn’t have been as special without my loving host Tom Bergeron, the talented dancers, and witty judges. I will always cherish my days on that set, even if I wasn’t the best at walking in heels.”
ABC said this in a statement:
“Tom Bergeron will forever be part of the Dancing with the Stars family. As we embark on a new creative direction, he departs the show with our sincerest thanks and gratitude for his trademark wit and charm that helped make this show a success. Erin will also not be returning, and we appreciate all that she brought to the ballroom. Fans have been rooting for her since she originally competed as a contestant back in 2010, and her signature sense of humor has become a hallmark of the show.”
Is that “new creative direction” going to involve a host? If he helped make the show a success, why is he now a liability?
The show has already announced that it has cast Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe, which indicates it’s not changing that much, casting an ABC reality star.