Media

‘Dancing with the Stars’ host on casting political guests like Spicer: Will ‘agree to disagree’

by Joe Concha - 08/21/19 1:29 PM ET

ABC “Dancing with the Stars” host Tom Bergeron on Wednesday reacted to the announcement that former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer would be joining as a contestant by saying that he would have to “agree to disagree” about picking political guests to come on the show.

The statement comes after the announcement about Spicer drew some blowback on social media.

{mosads}Bergeron issued a lengthy statement via Twitter in response to the announcement, though he did not specifically mention Spicer.

“A few months ago, during a lunch with DWTS‘ new Executive Producer, I offered suggestions for Season 28,” he wrote to his more than 260,000 followers. “Chief among them was my hope that DWTS, in its return following an unprecedented year-long hiatus, would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”

“I left that lunch convinced we were in agreement,” he continued. “Subsequently (and rather obviously), a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, ‘go in a different direction.’ It is the prerogative of the producers, in partnership with the network, to make whatever decisions they feel are in the best long term interests of the franchise.

“We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it’s their call. I’ll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions,” Bergeron concluded.

Some thoughts about today pic.twitter.com/aCQ4SHrGCI

— Tom Bergeron (@Tom_Bergeron) August 21, 2019

Spicer told The Hill that he felt it was a good time to “have some fun and experience something completely new.”

“Two years after leaving the White House, I have two businesses up and running and thought it was a good time to have some fun and experience something completely new and different,” Spicer wrote in a text message.

Bergeron had earlier joked on “Good Morning America” that Spicer would be in charge of assessing audience size on the show.

That was in reference to Spicer’s claim during his first day as press secretary that President Trump had “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”

Spicer later said he “screwed up” with the claim.

None of the other “Dancing With the Stars” competitors this season will hail from political backgrounds.

The rest of the cast will be made up of Netflix’s “Queer Eye” star Karamo Brown, former NBA star Lamar Odom, former “Dawson’s Creek” star James Van Der Beek, supermodel Christie Brinkley, country superstar Lauren Alaina, former Fifth Harmony member AllyBrooke, former NFL star Ray Lewis, actress Kate Flannery, The Supremes’s Mary Wilson, and “Bachelorette” Hannah Brown.

The new season premieres Sept. 16.

Tags Dancing with the Stars Donald Trump Sean Spicer Tom Bergeron