Tom Bergeron Lost His Gig on “Dancing with the Stars” Over This…

Tom Bergeron holds the award for outstanding reality host for “Dancing with the Stars” at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles September 23, 2012. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (UNITED STATES Tags: ENTERTAINMENT) (EMMYS-BACKSTAGE)

Tom Bergeron lost his job on “Dancing with the Stars” over POLITICS.  Not behind-the-scenes TV show politics, but actual Washington D.C. politics.

He gave the details to dancer Cheryl Burke on her “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans” podcast.

Tom said that in 2019, with the presidential election coming up, he met with executives to discuss the upcoming season.  And he told them he wanted to steer clear of controversy and not cast any political figures.

He said the show should be a, quote, “wonderful escape from all that divisiveness for two hours a week.”  And they AGREED.

But soon after that conversation, he got the news that Donald Trump’s former spokesman Sean Spicer had been cast.  And he was FURIOUS.

He actually offered to compromise by taking the season off, but they counter-offered to let him out of his contract entirely, which basically let him know the relationship was over.  He tried to keep it bottled up, but he couldn’t. He decided to issue a statement to let people know that, quote, “they [effing] lied to me.”

That statement didn’t name any names or address the situation specifically.  It just said he’d had an agreement with the producers, and they threw him a “curveball“.

He did stick it out for the season, but they canned him when it was over.

SOURCES: People & Hollywood Reporter