‘Dancing With The Stars’ Host Tom Bergeron Disappointed With Sean Spicer Booking; Others React

Greg Evans

Wed, August 21, 2019 at 4:57 PM UTC

3 min read

Tom Bergeron expresses disappointment over Sean Spicer's casting on Dancing With The Stars, hoping for a politically divisive-free season.
Bill Prader, executive producer of The Big Bang Theory, criticizes ABC for booking Sean Spicer, citing his history of lying and defending Hitler.
Sean Spicer, enthusiastic about joining the show, previously faced backlash for a surprise appearance at the 2017 Emmys.

Refresh for updates Tom Bergeron, the longtime host of ABC's Dancing With The Stars, isn't happy with the booking of Sean Spicer, Donald Trump's former White House press secretary, as a contestant for the upcoming season.

In a tweet today following the casting announcement , Bergeron wrote that he had hoped the upcoming 28 season "would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations."

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In fact, Bergeron said he left a lunch with the show's new executive producer (that would be Andrew Llinares) a few months ago and thought they were in agreement.

"Subsequently (and rather obviously)," Bergeron continued, "a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, 'go in a different direction."

Bergeron also stopped by for a promotional appearance on SiriusXM to discuss the show with host Dalton Ross, reiterating his tweet.

See his entire Twitter statement below.

Deadline has reached out to ABC for comment.

Bergeron wasn't the only Hollywood figure disappointed with the booking. Bill Prader, executive producer of The Big Bang Theory , tweeted, "

Sean Spicer lied repeatedly to the American people and literally defended Hitler. @ABC Network: "Yes, but can he fox trot? Tune in to see!"

For his part, Spicer was enthusiastic. "It's time to have some fun," he tweeted this morning.

ABC might want to have considered Spicer's surprise appearance on the 2017 Emmys, hosted by Stephen Colbert, which didn't go down well with many. A couple flashbacks:

https://twitter.com/zachbraff/status/909583547131817986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-1512626451717939391.ampproject.net%2F1907301630320%2Fframe.htmlhttps://twitter.com/kalpenn/status/909573450829897728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-1512626451717939391.ampproject.net%2F1907301630320%2Fframe.html

Here are some reactions to the Dancing With The Stars announcement. Deadline will add other reactions as they arrive.

https://twitter.com/CillizzaCNN/status/1164255320388059137

https://twitter.com/Tom_Bergeron/status/1164199118165729281

https://twitter.com/LisaAnnWalter/status/1164213777434210304

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