Tom Bergeron remembers hosting DWTS the night his father died

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Tom Bergeron has spoken openly about his father’s death.

Tom Bergeron hosted “Dancing with the stars” since 14 years. He split from ABC in 2019 and found out he was being replaced without much notice.

“To be honest, the show I left wasn’t the show I loved. So, the end of what turned out to be my last season, I kind of knew. So I got everything I really wanted out of my dressing room,” Bergeron said said on the Bob Saget’s Here For You podcast in September 2021.

Despite his layoff, Bergeron has remained friends with several cast members, including pro Cheryl Burke. The two are very close and still keep in touch regularly. In fact, Bergeron sat down with Burke for her new podcast “Burke in the Game”. The episode was split into two parts and uploaded in early September.

During their conversation, Bergeron opened up on an earlier episode of DWTS, which he hosted just hours later upon learning his father had died.

Here’s what you need to know:

Bergeron received a call about his father’s death while he was in his dressing room before a live show

Bergeron told Burke that he received a call from his wife while he was in his dressing room getting ready for the live show in 2015.

“My dad died on a show day,” Bergeron told Burke. “I got the call … I was with him at the nursing home on Friday. I said, you know, ‘I have to do the show on Monday. I have to fly tomorrow. I’ll be back on Tuesday, dad.”

“But at that point he started coming in and out and he started seeing his parents — my grandparents. So I told him, I said, ‘I’ll be back Tuesday. But if you see them, you can go to them. It’s okay,'” Bergeron recalled.

“And I completely — I didn’t know if I would ever see him again,” he continued.

Bergeron went to DWTS and was hosted as usual

Bergeron told Burke that he ultimately decided to host that night’s show because being busy helped him cope. He didn’t tell anyone except for an executive producer, a cinematographer, and his then-co-host Erin Andrews.

Though Bergeron was given the option to “skip dress rehearsal,” Bergeron said no.

“I have to be here,” Bergeron told his executive producer. Bergeron credited Andrews with being “a rock” to him that night.

“I didn’t even know what I was going to say at the end of the show,” Bergeron said, but it came just in time.

“My dad never missed a show and I’d like to remember that he doesn’t miss this one,” Bergeron said on the air. After wrapping up, he and Andrews went back to his dressing room and cried.

At the end of the show, the producers put up a screen in honor of Bergeron’s father, Ray Bergeron. Lute! newsRay had cancer and died at the age of 81. Tom’s mother, Catherine “Kay” Bergeron, died four months later.

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