Tom Bergeron Calls out ABC During ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Return

Tom Bergeron had a message for ABC as the former Dancing With the Stars host returned to the ballroom for the dance competition’s 20th Birthday Party Night on Tuesday.

Bergeron, 70, served as a guest judge in his first return to the show since his shocking firing in 2020, sitting behind the judging panel for the first time alongside Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli.

In his final moments on camera for the episode, Bergeron pivoted from issuing critiques to send a message to ABC, saying, “In my last comments as a judge, I want to talk directly to the network.”

“This show is setting ratings records again,” he went on, “So next season, bring back the results show. Let the whole country vote. Let everybody vote.”

Bergeron’s plea to ABC refers to the former two-episode format of Dancing With the Stars, which split the week into a performance night and a results episode the following night, which featured behind-the-scenes content and the week’s elimination.

Not only did the two-night format, which ended in 2013, allow for more guest performances, it also allowed viewers to have a bigger voting window, as fans on the West Coast were able to watch the show before casting their votes.

Bergeron has long been a proponent of the two-night format, telling The Hollywood Reporter ahead of his return to the ballroom, “I always mourned the loss of that Tuesday show. I thought it made the voting more fair across the country, because the West Coast can’t vote now unless they’re watching on wherever the hell you’d watch it streamed live.”

“The results show was great,” the former host added. “It was like a variety show with an elimination at the end. I think the ratings now would really speak to it being time to bring that back.”

Prior to his return to the show, Bergeron told TV Insider that the return would be “wonderfully emotional” and “nostalgic.”

“It’s so much fun to watch my friends do the work,” he joked of current co-hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough. “I don’t have to throw to commercials. I don’t have to worry about the timing. I’ll be respectful and sensitive of what Alfonso has to deal with, ’cause I’ve been there.”

He continued, “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 on ABC and Disney+ and is available to stream the next day on Hulu.