Tom Bergeron has been praising the current “Dancing with the Stars” cast following his triumphant return to the show last night. The former host of the series, 70, appeared as a guest judge on the “20th Birthday Party” episode on Tuesday, November 11, as the show celebrated two decades on air.
Bergeron was generous with his scoring. He scored actress Elaine Hendrix a 9, conservationist Robert Irwin a 10, comedian Andy Richter a 7, reality television star Dylan Efron a 10, Olympian Jordan Chiles a 9, social media star Alix Earle 10, and reality television star Whitney Leavitt a 10.
The beloved television personality seemed to enjoy his return and has posted multiple times about it on his Instagram account, showing what a great time he had. He’s also been having his say about his thoughts on the current state of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Tom Bergeron Believes DWTS Is Doing ‘Exactly What It Should Do’
In an exclusive interview with Parade, Tom Bergeron showered praise on the current “Dancing with the Stars” setup, telling the publication, “I think that the show is doing exactly what it should do at 20 years old. I think that they’ve got the right team and it feels young and it feels refreshed, and I think you can see that in the total audience numbers.”
Bergeron had only good things to say about the line-up of hosts and judges. He said, “Derek is there, sort of filling Len’s central judge role, and you’ve got Alfonso and Julianne. It’s a younger-feeling show. They’re casting it with influencers and people that I wouldn’t know from a hole in the wall, but are obviously charismatic and [make] very good television. As much as I appreciate all of the lovely reactions I’m getting to coming back, I don’t think a 70-year-old guy should be hosting that show.”
It was high praise indeed from such a respected and experienced figure from the television world — and it showed a lot of humility, given that he was unceremoniously fired from the show ahead of its 29th season in 2020.
However, there was one significant change Bergeron would make to the current format of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Bergeron Wants the DWTS Results Show to Return
Tom Bergeron believes there should be a separate results show, like there used to be, and thinks ABC should reinstate it — something he pleaded with the network to do while he was live on the show last night. He told Parade, “I do miss the results show.”
He gave his insight into why he has that opinion, saying, “Based on the ratings success that they are having now, [I hope] that ABC brings back the results show and enables the voting to carry over to the next day.”
Bergeron added further justification to his reasoning, saying, “By the time it’s replayed on the West Coast, they don’t have a chance to vote. It’s already done. If I was at ABC in a position to call the shots, I’d put the results show back on. There’s nothing that the network has that’s doing as well as Dancing with the Stars.”
They’re undoubtedly valid reasons, and bringing back the results show would emulate the existing formats of other successful shows like “American Idol.” It’s certainly food for thought for ABC, because nobody knows “Dancing with the Stars” better than Tom Bergeron.
Tom, you are such a class act!