Tom Bergeron Teases Possible ‘DWTS’ Return Ahead of Season 34

Tom Bergeron may be making his way back into the Dancing With the Stars ballroom.

The former DWTS host, who exited the ABC dance competition series after 28 seasons in 2020, teased a possible return to the show during an interview with USA Today published Thursday.

Bergeron revealed in a discussion of his upcoming Shark Week show, Dancing With Sharks, that he had been keeping up with DWTS executive producer Conrad Green, whom the former host said was “largely responsible for getting the show back on track.”

Bergeron then said he actually had turned down an invitation from Green to attend the show’s 500th episode special during last year’s Season 33, explaining, “I said that I’d get too fidgety sitting in the audience.”

Bergeron also shared that he had pitched a possible DWTS return for himself to the showrunner. “We did have lunch, and we did talk, and I offered a scenario where I might come back for a night in a certain capacity,” he teased, adding, “The mirrorball is back in their court.”

Bergeron’s ousting after 28 seasons at DWTS shocked fans back in July 2020, when both he and his co-host, Erin Andrews, announced they would not be returning to the show for Season 29.

“Just informed @DancingABC will be continuing without me,” Bergeron wrote on social media at the time. “It’s been an incredible 15-year run and the most unexpected gift of my career. I’m grateful for that and for the lifelong friendships made.”

Bergeron and Andrews were then replaced by Tyra Banks, who hosted Seasons 29 and 30 solo before Alfonso Ribeiro was brought in as her co-host. In Season 32, Julianne Hough took over for Banks, and she and Ribeiro have co-hosted ever since.

Bergeron previously revealed on Cheryl Burke’s Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast in 2023 that he had clashed with DWTS producers over their casting of the Trump administration’s former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Season 28, as Bergeron wanted to keep political figures off the show entirely.

“So I was furious,” he recalled. “At one point, I even said, ‘How ’bout if I take this season off?’ And they said, ‘Well, we’ll let you out of your contract if you want.’ That’s how strongly they felt about it.” He added, “And that really pissed me off. So I said, ‘Alright, let me try to be Switzerland here. But I was furious. … I was at least going to let people know that they f—ing lied to me.”

Asked at the time if he would return to DWTS, Bergeron replied, “No, never. Because it’s not the same show. It’s not the same world,” adding, “There’s no point. What would I prove? … Let the show either exist with the fresh blood that it has now or die a natural death.”