Quite a choice! Ahead of season 29 of Dancing With the Stars, ABC announced that Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews would not be returning. Fans — and the hosts themselves — were shocked by the news, but the network felt it was time for a change.
“I think it’s all about evolution. I think any show like this that has been on many, many seasons needs to continue to evolve,” executive producer Andrew Llinares told reporters during ABC’s VirtuFall panel on Wednesday, September 30. “I think changing the host was all about evolution, it was about making the show feel fresh, making it feel new [and] kind of make it reach out — maybe to a new audience as well, as well as the audience that’s been there for years.”
Llinares also shared his choice to bring in Tyra Banks and only have one host instead of two.
“I think it’s working brilliantly with the one host. I think it’s really refreshed the pace of the show, actually,” he told reporters. “I think it’s taken it to a new pace, in terms of moving faster and just feeling different. I think there’s a real danger when a show’s been on for a long time that the audience almost gets bored of the rhythm. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. It just sort of gets a little boring — the rhythm of it. So, I think it’s changed the rhythm of the show in a really exciting way.”
He continued: “Tyra is doing an amazing, amazing job. It’s just so wonderful to have her energy in the ballroom and her expertise as a host in the ballroom. I think I think she’s brought a new life to everything. It’s really exciting.”
Bergeron, 65, who had hosted Dancing With the Stars since its 2005 debut, tweeted the news in July. “Just informed @DancingABC will be continuing without me,” he wrote at the time. “It’s been an incredible 15 year run and the most unexpected gift of my career.”
Shortly after, the network shared the news that both hosts had been axed.
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“Nobody wants to be let go when it’s not on their terms, but I do think there’s something on the horizon. I’m definitely working my people to find something and put something on the horizon,” the sportscaster, 42, said earlier this month about being cut. “I really enjoyed being in that space and I think I’m somebody that, you know, as much as I do love sports — I’m a fan of a lot of things, reality TV, I’m just a fan of TV and so, I think that’s why Dancing was a great fit for me because, you know, it was live. You didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
