Tom Bergeron Puts Out Statement After Spicer Joins DWTS: I Wanted to Avoid Politically ‘Divisive Bookings’

There was much eye-rolling today in response to the announcement that Sean Spicer is joining Dancing With the Stars. And now host Tom Bergeron has put out a statement saying his preference for this season would’ve been to just avoid political bookings entirely.

The show has featured political guests in the past, most famously that bonkers Rick Perry performance, but Bergeron said that one of his hopes for the upcoming season was that the show would provide a “joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”

The announcement of the former Trump White House press secretary joining the cast would, then, suggest this argument didn’t quite win the day.

“I left that lunch convinced we were in agreement,” Bergeron continued. “Subsequently (and rather obviously), a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, ‘go in a different direction.'”

He says it’s the producers’ prerogative and said “we can agree to disagree,” adding, “Ultimately it’s their call. I’ll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions.”

Some thoughts about today pic.twitter.com/aCQ4SHrGCI

— Tom Bergeron (@Tom_Bergeron) August 21, 2019

Bergeron elaborated in an interview on SiriusXM’s EW Live:

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