Maybe these two should settle their beef with a dance-off!
As we reported on Wednesday, the lineup for season 28 of Dancing with the Stars was announced, and featured celebrities such as Lamar Odom, The Bachelorette‘s Hannah Brown, and former White House Press Secretary and White House Communications Director Sean Spicer.
Related: Tom Bergeron Dances Away With Best Reality Show Host!
Not surprisingly, not everyone was fond of the political aide’s casting.
That same day, host Tom Bergeron went on Twitter and posted a message seemingly shading the 47-year-old.
In his note, the ABC personality said he met with the show’s new executive producer a few months ago, and hoped the program would be free of “divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”
Clearly, the execs did not listen.
The 64-year-old penned:
“A few months ago, during a lunch with DWTS‘ new Executive Producer, I offered suggestions for Season 28. 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. Subsequently (and rather obviously), a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, ‘go in a different direction.'”
The America’s Funniest Home Videos alum added:
“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.”
He concluded:
“For me, as host, I always gaze into the camera’s lens and imagine you on the other side, looking for a two hour escape from whatever life hassles you’ve been wrestling with. That’s a connection, and a responsibility, which I take very seriously, even if I occasionally season it with dad jokes. Hopefully, when [co-host] Erin Andrews and I look into those lenses again on September 16, you’ll be on the other side looking back, able to enjoy the charismatic pro dancers, the unpredictable judges, and the kitschy charm that has defined DWTS since 2005.”
During the big announcement on Good Morning America, Bergeron made a dig at Spicer — referencing the drama surrounding the crowd size of Trump’s 2017 inauguration.
Tom quipped:
“The nice thing is, Sean will be in charge of assessing audience size.”
Spicer resigned as White House Press Secretary on July 21, 2017, and was replaced by Sarah Sanders.
On June 13, 2019, the President tweeted Sanders would be leaving her role, and was subsequently swapped for Stephanie Grisham.
[Image via Patricia Schlein/Eugene Powers/WENN.]
