Speaker 1: It's been a minute, but welcome back to Danielle with
Speaker 1: a podcast that at one time faithfully followed my journey
Speaker 1: from normal, everyday plead to exceptional exceptional professional dancer, and now,
Speaker 1: with announcements and events popping up all over pop culture,
Speaker 1: the season has returned. It's officially time to talk Dancing
Speaker 1: with the Stars. I'm excited to be diving back into
Speaker 1: the universe at the end of July at Dancing with
Speaker 1: the Stars Con twenty six in Palm Springs, California, where
Speaker 1: I'll be partaking in the festivities and endlessly complaining about
Speaker 1: the heat. Tickets available now, and they've already welcomed three
Speaker 1: new cast members for season thirty five, reality TV stars
Speaker 1: Mora Higgins and Sierra Miller and Savannah Bananas baseball player
Speaker 1: Jackson Olsen. But none of this could be possible without
Speaker 1: the contributions of this week's special guest. There's been a
Speaker 1: lot of Mount Rushmore talk on social media this year,
Speaker 1: and I think you'd be hard pressed to leave this
Speaker 1: legend off when it comes to Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 1: Variation Originally a radio DJ with stops in New Hampshire
Speaker 1: and Boston, he did the unthinkable and did have a
Speaker 1: face for TV, landing local hosting spots, including a teenage
Speaker 1: discussion series called Wrap Around Spelled Rap I'm going to
Speaker 1: need to know everything about that. And then the floodgates opened.
Speaker 1: Three years at FX and Fox, guest hosts on Good
Speaker 1: Morning America and a gig that landed him the Daytime
Speaker 1: Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host, Hollywood Squares. Then for
Speaker 1: thirteen years he was the face of America's Funniest Home Videos,
Speaker 1: still the show's longest tenured host, introducing dudes getting hit
Speaker 1: in the genitals, which led to another Emmy winning spot,
Speaker 1: the Master of Ceremonies for Dancing with the Stars from
Speaker 1: two thousand and five to twenty twenty. He co hosted
Speaker 1: the Emmys in two thousand and eight, wrote a best
Speaker 1: selling autobiography in two thousand and nine, and made his
Speaker 1: triumphant return to the ballroom last year, a hopeful sign
Speaker 1: that we will get to see him even more during
Speaker 1: this new renaissance of the show.
Speaker 2: Also, we work out at the same gym this week.
Speaker 1: I'm honored to welcome to Danielle with a pioneer of
Speaker 1: reality and competition TV, Tom bergeron.
Speaker 3: Well, I just have to tell you after hearing of
Speaker 3: all my accomplishments, I'm exhausted.
Speaker 4: Aren't you tired?
Speaker 3: I've just I have to go lie down now.
Speaker 2: No wonder you just want to stay in your home
Speaker 2: and have food delivered, you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's we were Danielle and I were talking just
Speaker 3: before we invited you in that I had become a
Speaker 3: recluse very happily with streaming services and Instacart and door
Speaker 3: Dash and Zoom. I mean, why leave?
Speaker 2: Why leave your house?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: My mom actually has been saying that for years, long
Speaker 1: before the streaming services.
Speaker 2: In the Zoom.
Speaker 1: Whenever we would pitch the idea of going camping, my
Speaker 1: mom would say, but I've worked very hard for this house.
Speaker 1: Why would I want to pretend I don't have one?
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, Why go into a smaller version, you know,
Speaker 3: where we're all bumping into each other?
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 1: Well, it's in my absolute pleasure to get to sit
Speaker 1: here with you for the podcast. I did mention in
Speaker 1: your intro that we go to the same gym, and
Speaker 1: there is not a single person at our gym who
Speaker 1: doesn't say, what an absolute lovely gem of a human
Speaker 1: being you are.
Speaker 3: Oh stop, stop, I have to say at the outset.
Speaker 3: One thing I really missed when I went back to
Speaker 3: be a guest judge for the twentieth you were voted
Speaker 3: off like the week before.
Speaker 1: Right, I know I missed you missed you by that much,
Speaker 1: I know, I think so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because what week were you there?
Speaker 3: Was the I think it was week nine?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was voted off week eight, so yeah.
Speaker 3: Yes, the twentieth celebration was week now. Yeah, sorry about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was there.
Speaker 1: I was just sitting in the audience now going hey everyone, Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I'm going to need to get wrap
Speaker 1: around out of the way first. This was a weekend
Speaker 1: TV show with troubled teens at WBZ in Boston.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, yeah, they weren't all troubled. They were probably
Speaker 3: troubled about it on a par with me. Okay, but yeah,
Speaker 3: it was a really cool format. It was me with
Speaker 3: a different high school or high schools every week talking
Speaker 3: about issues a specific two teens, and some of them
Speaker 3: were you know, like peer pressure, gang influences in and
Speaker 3: around the Boston area, et cetera. So I only had
Speaker 3: one rule. I said, I'm I'm I'm not going to
Speaker 3: be either your parent or your peer Okay, I just
Speaker 3: want to listen, and I'm going to respond with my
Speaker 3: natural curiosity based on what you're telling me. Once we
Speaker 3: establish what the topic for any given show is. And
Speaker 3: we sat around together on these cushioned It was a
Speaker 3: really cool, like graffiti Layton set that they came up with,
Speaker 3: and I did that for a couple of seasons on
Speaker 3: the what was then the NBC affiliate in Boston.
Speaker 2: OW I mean, how did you get that job?
Speaker 1: Because, with all due respect, when I think of gang
Speaker 1: violence and hip hop music, my first thought is not, Yeah.
Speaker 3: The whitest man in America. When I would show up
Speaker 3: what I would show up for Hollywood Squares because we'd
Speaker 3: shoot during the summer, and I'd show up, you know,
Speaker 3: a T shirt and shorts because the wardrobe people had
Speaker 3: my c was hanging up and Whoopy would look at
Speaker 3: me and go, those are the whitest legs in America.
Speaker 3: So I had been doing other stuff at that station
Speaker 3: at BC, and I had done a magazine show for
Speaker 3: younger kids called super Kids prior to wrap Around, and
Speaker 3: then I started hosting the midday talk show called People
Speaker 3: Were Talking, which was on the Westinghouse stations. Oprah did
Speaker 3: the one in Baltimore as a matter of fact, at
Speaker 3: one time, and as a result of that, they said, Hey,
Speaker 3: would you like to do another show, just a weekend
Speaker 3: show that we taped during the week just with kids. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And I thought, well, that's you know, I think at
Speaker 3: that point I was a new dad as well. Oh
Speaker 3: so I wanted to see what I was in for exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you had just started to make a name for
Speaker 1: yourself as a host. Apparently you were so good that
Speaker 1: people wanted you on other shows. You mentioned, people are talking,
Speaker 1: and like you said, it was a big regional talk
Speaker 1: show with guests like Spike Lee, New Kids on the Block,
Speaker 1: Roseanne Barr and other very time relevant names. And then
Speaker 1: this was in the Donna Hue or Oprah format of
Speaker 1: the era.
Speaker 2: Was this your style of talk show?
Speaker 1: It's very host reliant, so you had to love it.
Speaker 3: It was What I loved about it was it was
Speaker 3: like cramming for an exam every night, because five days
Speaker 3: a week for one hour midday live, which I love. Wow,
Speaker 3: it was a given topic or guest. One of my
Speaker 3: favorite guests he was on twice with me, was President
Speaker 3: Jimmy Carter, the late Jimmy Carter, wonderful guests, and we
Speaker 3: ran the gamut from sublime to ridiculous on that format.
Speaker 3: But my favorite, my absolute favorite experience hosting on television.
Speaker 3: And this might surprise people who think, well, it's got
Speaker 3: to be America's funniest vidy as stars, it's not. It's
Speaker 3: Breakfast Time on FX, which I co hosted from ninety
Speaker 3: four to ninety six, and it was set in a
Speaker 3: sixty five hundred square foot apartment in the Flatiron district
Speaker 3: of New York, made for television, and it was just
Speaker 3: and the cast was incredible, and I loved going to
Speaker 3: work every day. I'd get up in Connecticut at three
Speaker 3: point thirty in the morning and drive to Manhattan, so
Speaker 3: I'd get there the office at about five, and you know,
Speaker 3: loved it, not that part of it, but I loved
Speaker 3: the actual show.
Speaker 2: What was Your bedtime? For a three thirty wake up?
Speaker 3: It was early as a matter of and the girls
Speaker 3: were see our daughters at that point were probably do
Speaker 3: six and four. So Lois, my wife, actually got them
Speaker 3: a board game called Don't Wake Daddy. And I was
Speaker 3: basically on the same sleep schedule as my kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I actually know that schedule. Well, because
Speaker 1: my husband did morning radio out in LA when we
Speaker 1: first got married, and so he had a very similar
Speaker 1: four am alarm clock.
Speaker 2: And I said, listen, I'm pregnant. Let's just start getting
Speaker 2: on that baby schedule.
Speaker 1: So we'd go to bed at eight thirty and then
Speaker 1: get up at four. It's actually kind of glorious. So
Speaker 1: what was Breakfast Time about.
Speaker 3: Well, it was about two hours.
Speaker 2: And then it happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It was kind of a gonzo version of a
Speaker 3: morning television show. We had news and weather and guests
Speaker 3: and all that, but we did it in almost a
Speaker 3: morning zoo kind of format. It was like a radio
Speaker 3: show on television. Great, there are compilation videos on YouTube
Speaker 3: and you can type in my name and Breakfast Time
Speaker 3: and just I'm the guy with the brown hair in
Speaker 3: those videos. But yeah, it was just wonderful. My co
Speaker 3: host was Laurie Hibbert now Laurie Gelman, married to Michael Gelman. Yeah,
Speaker 3: what is it, Kelly and somebody else? Now Mark or.
Speaker 2: I think it's Mark, Yeah, Mark, thank you?
Speaker 3: Well, anyway that Laurie's married to Gelman. Yeah, but we
Speaker 3: we just hit it off. I've been very fortunate with
Speaker 3: with co hosts. Over the years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, as I mentioned my husband being a morning
Speaker 1: radio DJ, and you said, like a morning zoo type thing.
Speaker 1: Do you love We love radio. We think radio is
Speaker 1: just one of the greatest formats ever. Do you think
Speaker 1: it is something there's something special about that skill set
Speaker 1: that helps with the transition then to TV.
Speaker 3: That's a really good question, and I think you're spot on.
Speaker 3: I think the thing that I always tell aspiring broadcasters, podcasters, whatever,
Speaker 3: is that, however big an audience you're shooting for, just
Speaker 3: remember you're only talking to one person, right, And you
Speaker 3: know that was really as a matter of fact, when
Speaker 3: I first started in radio, Danielle, I had in my
Speaker 3: hometown in Massachusetts. So that I could focus on one person,
Speaker 3: I had an album cover on the other side of
Speaker 3: the microphone that had this really attractive woman's face on it.
Speaker 3: I couldn't tell you what band it was or but
Speaker 3: I'm sure that for the first couple of years of
Speaker 3: my career I just sounded horny.
Speaker 1: You're like, I'm gonna keep my eyes locked on.
Speaker 3: But I think that keeping that in mind, that you're
Speaker 3: talking to one person, that was something easy to develop
Speaker 3: in radio because you're kind of in a room by
Speaker 3: yourself unless you have a morning team around you. And
Speaker 3: then for television, it was funny. There was one one
Speaker 3: time Fantastic with the Stars. Some friends from the East
Speaker 3: Coast were in the audience visiting, and during a commercial break,
Speaker 3: my buddy Greg called me over. He goes, Tom, you know,
Speaker 3: there's so much noise here in the ballroom. I can't
Speaker 3: hear you when you're talking. And I said, well, that's
Speaker 3: all right, I'm not talking to you. Nothing I'm saying
Speaker 3: is that person on the other side of the lens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, I know. I have noticed. I've been toasting
Speaker 1: the American Idol Official podcast in. Ryan Seacrest, of course,
Speaker 1: is the host of that show, another legendary host, and
Speaker 1: whenever he's talking, he's just it's.
Speaker 2: His absolute same volume. Everyone in the audience is going crazy.
Speaker 1: No one knows what he's saying or when he's even
Speaker 1: done saying it, but he's not talking to us.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Dancing with the Stars, and I always imagine
Speaker 1: the first time somebody hears the pitch for the show,
Speaker 1: and I think this, it must have just sounded insane.
Speaker 1: It's not like ballroom dancing was having a moment or anything.
Speaker 1: And then this concept of teaching celebrit parties how to
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 2: It kind of sounds like a car wreck.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, yes and no. I mean there was
Speaker 3: a there was some momentum for ballroom okay time, there
Speaker 3: was the movie Strictly Ballroom came out. I think Richard
Speaker 3: Gear and j Low were in it. And as a
Speaker 3: matter of fact, that's why the mothership, which had been
Speaker 3: called Come Dancing for years, yeah, added illogically Strictly because
Speaker 3: they were sort of, you know, in the slipstream of
Speaker 3: the success of that movie, and Strictly Come Dancing shifted
Speaker 3: from being I think originally it was like a weekend
Speaker 3: legit ballroom professional show, and then they started adding the
Speaker 3: celebrity element and moved it to prime time and it
Speaker 3: blew up and it okay. So that's what prompted the
Speaker 3: head of entertainment programming at the time, Andrew Along, to
Speaker 3: pitch of an American version of that. And she told
Speaker 3: me later, once we were established in a hit, she said, Tom,
Speaker 3: when I was in that room pitching it, nobody would
Speaker 3: make eye contact with me.
Speaker 2: Like this is on com.
Speaker 3: She's killing her career right now, we're watching it happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and turn away from the car wreck.
Speaker 3: That's right. So she had a pretty big I told
Speaker 3: you so in her back pocket for quite some time.
Speaker 1: Boy, I love that.
Speaker 2: Did you have any dance knowledge going into it?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: I barely have any now, Yeah, No, I didn't at all. All.
Speaker 3: The only knowledge I had was, you know, being comfortable
Speaker 3: hosting live television. And in some ways that was an
Speaker 3: advantage because I became your surrogate as the viewer. I
Speaker 3: was learning while you were learning, you know, And I
Speaker 3: mean I have some dance lingo. But I said to
Speaker 3: everybody when I showed up to be a guest judge
Speaker 3: in November, I said, I'm not gonna be critiquing technique.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to tell you emotionally what I felt
Speaker 3: watching the dance, because you know, Derek and Carrie Ann
Speaker 3: and Bruno, they've got the technique stuff down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not going to compete with them?
Speaker 3: No that No, I wouldn't even pretend to have any
Speaker 3: of that knowledge. But I could. I could critique based
Speaker 3: as a viewer, and my role, I think when I
Speaker 3: hosted it over the years was to basically protect you guys,
Speaker 3: you know, from the judges and then God bless him.
Speaker 3: I did miss him. I wish he was still with us.
Speaker 2: Everybody misses.
Speaker 3: Everybody's such a wonderful, lovely man with just the right amount.
Speaker 1: Of snark yep, exactly, yes.
Speaker 3: And you know, sometimes the judges were a little harsh,
Speaker 3: and I try to be like a comedic shield between
Speaker 3: the couples and the judges and try to and just
Speaker 3: keep the show move, just keep everything going, because as
Speaker 3: you know, there are a lot of moving parts.
Speaker 2: There sure are.
Speaker 1: Okay, what can you tell me about that first season,
Speaker 1: because I have to imagine it was like the wild West.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was the summer of two thousand and five.
Speaker 3: I was on hiatus from America's Funniest Videos. So when
Speaker 3: ABC asked if I would host a summer show, I thought, well,
Speaker 3: you know, sure, Okay, six weeks live TV. Why not,
Speaker 3: expecting nothing of it other than it might be it
Speaker 3: might come back next summer if it's a hit this summer.
Speaker 3: But you know, it didn't know what we had. I mean,
Speaker 3: I was really skeptical about a celebrity ballroom show. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but I'll give it a go. What the heck. The
Speaker 3: one thing that I insisted on changing by the time
Speaker 3: we got to season two. In season one, there were
Speaker 3: a lot of scripted jokes. Okay, and the joke writer
Speaker 3: is actually a friend of mine. He's award winning, great guy,
Speaker 3: but it always felt weird. I finally said to the producers,
Speaker 3: you know what, We're a live show. I should be
Speaker 3: reacting in real time to what I'm seeing and feeling.
Speaker 3: And sometimes that might be with a joke. Sometimes it
Speaker 3: might be with a hug. You know. Sometimes it's just
Speaker 3: but to have something scripted days earlier that has no
Speaker 3: bearing on what we just saw, what's the point of that.
Speaker 3: So I made the pitch. I said, just I'm asking
Speaker 3: you to trust me, and and thankfully they did. And
Speaker 3: from season two on, I pretty much abandoned having anything
Speaker 3: prepared other than getting you to the commercial and bringing
Speaker 3: you back.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, that's so great, and in the script, just
Speaker 1: Tom reacts.
Speaker 3: Yeah. That was basically. We'd be in script meetings and
Speaker 3: especially leading into season two, and I'd look at something
Speaker 3: that you know, on its own was a good joke,
Speaker 3: but not germane to anything, right, and I would go on,
Speaker 3: I'm not doing that. As a matter of fact. On
Speaker 3: America's Funniest Videos in the early years, before they kind
Speaker 3: of got my rhythm and my voice. We would sit
Speaker 3: in a room before the taping and the head writer
Speaker 3: was Todd Thick, and he would turn to the other
Speaker 3: writers and he said, Okay, guys, here's where Tom kills
Speaker 3: your babies.
Speaker 2: Don't be too attached to anything.
Speaker 3: I'll busy at that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, a lot of fans talk about how the
Speaker 1: focus of the show has moved away from the drama
Speaker 1: packages of the early days, the arguments between partners, the bickering.
Speaker 2: Do you miss that element at all? Is there room
Speaker 2: for it? In twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: In all candor, I hadn't been watching.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so.
Speaker 3: You know I I had mixed feelings had yeah, exactly,
Speaker 3: So I wasn't really watching until the few weeks prior
Speaker 3: to being the guest judge. I mean, I still I
Speaker 3: think that was evident when I was back, have great
Speaker 3: fondness everybody there, and the people that I didn't have
Speaker 3: fondness for pretty much were all gone. Son made it
Speaker 3: easy to come back. But so I can't speak to
Speaker 3: how the packages have changed, but I will say since
Speaker 3: Conrad Green came back as the showrunner, who was my
Speaker 3: original showrunner, the ship has been righted. I know it
Speaker 3: got a little rocky for a couple of seasons there
Speaker 3: and seemed to spiral a bit, but I think Conrad
Speaker 3: got you know, got back in there, and as I
Speaker 3: said on the show last November, you know, it's it's
Speaker 3: having a ratings resurgence. And so whatever they're doing, whatever
Speaker 3: the in terms of cast or the packages or the focus,
Speaker 3: they have adapted that show so brilliantly for now that
Speaker 3: it's it's having a bit of a renaissance. And I
Speaker 3: couldn't be happier. Somebody asked me on social media, Tom,
Speaker 3: you must have been aware that the ratings went down
Speaker 3: after they fired you and Aaron. You must have been
Speaker 3: really happy, And I said no. I said I was
Speaker 3: aware of it, but you know, there are a lot
Speaker 3: of friends of mine working on that show who I
Speaker 3: wanted to still have jobs. So I took no you know,
Speaker 3: I took no pleasure in that. Yeah, And I was
Speaker 3: just what I did, take pleasure and was seeing it
Speaker 3: catch itself, yeah, and build into what it is again,
Speaker 3: especially in this environment.
Speaker 1: There has been a lot of love in the in
Speaker 1: the you know, mainstream media, certainly from the celebs and
Speaker 1: stuff for Dina Cats Dina Cats. Her name comes up
Speaker 1: all the time people talk about her. I would like
Speaker 1: to have just a moment where we do talk about Conrad,
Speaker 1: because Conrad's and doesn't necessarily get mentioned in the same
Speaker 1: way Dina's name gets mentioned.
Speaker 2: But one of the things I so appreciated.
Speaker 1: About my experience on that show where the amount of
Speaker 1: times there were group meetings leading into the start of
Speaker 1: the show and then during the season where they would
Speaker 1: let us know about something that was going to be
Speaker 1: going on. I don't think I've ever felt more genuinely
Speaker 1: protected than I did from Conrad, who made it very
Speaker 1: clear how much of an open door there was for
Speaker 1: anything we wanted to talk about, and that if anything
Speaker 1: was going on, we shouldn't stay quiet about it, We
Speaker 1: shouldn't talk about it, you know, amongst ourselves, we could
Speaker 1: go directly to him, and I just he truly was
Speaker 1: the way he runs that show makes the people who
Speaker 1: are a part of it know that you are a
Speaker 1: family and you're working together, and he's there for you
Speaker 1: if you need him.
Speaker 3: And really well said and absolutely spot on. And again
Speaker 3: he's the reason I went back. I would had he
Speaker 3: not been at the Helm, I wouldn't have gone back
Speaker 3: as much affection as I have for all the other people.
Speaker 3: You know, I just had it been the regime I
Speaker 3: locked horns with. I mean, you know, well, frankly, if
Speaker 3: they were still running the show, it'd be off the
Speaker 3: air by now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But yeah, Conrad being there made all the difference
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 1: So what do you think is the special sauce of
Speaker 1: this show? Why do you think so many people who've
Speaker 1: been a part of it, myself included, walk away from
Speaker 1: it saying it's life changing.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that I can only base it on
Speaker 3: what I've seen in the years and what I've seen
Speaker 3: now that he's back, and Alfonso and Julianne are there,
Speaker 3: and Derek's in the center seat and all that, and
Speaker 3: and I experienced it like a tsunami of affection when
Speaker 3: I when I went back in November, and and that
Speaker 3: to me is key that that what I would see
Speaker 3: every season when I was host was the obvious competitiveness
Speaker 3: among the couples, but also the support among the couples,
Speaker 3: you know who. They'd walk into their somebody else's rehearsal
Speaker 3: and offer a few suggestions, not not for sabotage, he
Speaker 3: genuinely helped and and and that was lovely and and
Speaker 3: you know, friendships that have lasted years after the show
Speaker 3: or the season they competed in. So you know, that
Speaker 3: speaks to I think that kind of quality that you
Speaker 3: really uh, it was very well said about the environ
Speaker 3: and Conrad creates and so for you know, a lot
Speaker 3: of my time there, he was at the Helm, and
Speaker 3: after he left it was people that he had brought
Speaker 3: up through the ranks, so they up until a certain point,
Speaker 3: had the same philosophy.
Speaker 1: Right. Is there a contestant you remember from your time
Speaker 1: on the show whose journey really stayed with you?
Speaker 3: You know, I probably could come up with a better example,
Speaker 3: but the one that always pops into my mind first
Speaker 3: is from an early season, and it was Jerry Springer.
Speaker 3: And you know, because i'd only known him for his
Speaker 3: talk show, which was you know, who was the Father?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know throwing Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Father, you
Speaker 3: know all that stuff. So when I heard he had
Speaker 3: been cast and went really curious. But he turned out
Speaker 3: to be the sweetest guy, just absolute mench And he
Speaker 3: said the only reason he did the show was to
Speaker 3: learn how to waltz for his daughter's wedding. Oh, I
Speaker 3: thought was lovely. And she actually was in the audience
Speaker 3: at one point and he was able to I think
Speaker 3: he did the actual waltz.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's beautiful.
Speaker 3: Layla Ali danced for her dad. Muhammad Ali was in
Speaker 3: the audience and it was sort of at a point
Speaker 3: where the Parkinson's had taken his speech from him and
Speaker 3: he was able to be there and you could still
Speaker 3: see the sparkle in his eyes.
Speaker 1: Oh, those are such special moments. I'll never forget having
Speaker 1: my children in the ballroom when I dance, like, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget that moment. So I will say, and this
Speaker 1: isn't just me trying to cope. It feels like nowadays
Speaker 1: contestants like Whitney Lovett or Alex Earl, these are superstar
Speaker 1: athletes basically doing insane moves, different than the old celebrity
Speaker 1: trying to dance model.
Speaker 3: Like Andy Rich There.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not naming any names, but you know.
Speaker 3: But that's part of it. There's always been an aspect
Speaker 3: of the show, going back to the early seasons where
Speaker 3: athletes were part of it or people who you know,
Speaker 3: And it was no surprise to me that a lot
Speaker 3: of NFL players did so well because you know, they're
Speaker 3: used to being coached there, used to being part of
Speaker 3: a team mentality. They tend not to have as many
Speaker 3: yes people around them as some of the celebrities do
Speaker 3: from entertainment, so they're better able to adapt to the
Speaker 3: environment I think of dancing. But that's always been part
Speaker 3: of it. I used to say when when people would say, oh,
Speaker 3: it's just a it's a popularity contest, I said, well, look,
Speaker 3: if you want a pure ballroom competition, I would suggest PBS.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're still putting on a show that people want
Speaker 1: to run into every week.
Speaker 3: Here's a news flash. Bruno, isn't that flamboyant off camera?
Speaker 3: He's just you know, he ratchets it up. I mean,
Speaker 3: Len God love him. He would, you know, sometimes be
Speaker 3: very direct and almost porderline hurtful with comments. He never
Speaker 3: was lying about his critique. He actually felt it, but
Speaker 3: he'd amp it up a little bit because we're doing
Speaker 3: a TV show, of course, and then he'd call me
Speaker 3: over during the commercial and he'd go, that.
Speaker 2: Was good, right, did you like it?
Speaker 1: Do you think it's fair to have prior dance experience
Speaker 1: before coming onto the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think I think that ship has sailed.
Speaker 3: I mean we've had they've had people with prior dance
Speaker 3: experience going back oh yeah, two thousand and six. I
Speaker 3: think so. Yeah, that's part of it. But by the
Speaker 3: same token, it's somebody like Andy Richter who really stole
Speaker 3: everybody's heart. I think because he epitomized a lot of
Speaker 3: what the best parts of the show are. Somebody coming
Speaker 3: in completely out of left field and really embracing it
Speaker 3: and working hard and being supportive of the other couple.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just he kind of epitomized the best
Speaker 3: of the show. Now, did he deserve to win, No,
Speaker 3: of course not. But you know, at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, if you had a bunch of people who
Speaker 3: never danced before on a two hour show, you'd be
Speaker 3: going for the remote.
Speaker 2: Yes, correct.
Speaker 3: There's only so much learning and fumbling around that you
Speaker 3: can see. You want to see some actual jaw dropping
Speaker 3: performances as well.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: That's you know, it's a tough show to produce for
Speaker 3: all those reasons, because you're never going to please everybody
Speaker 3: one hundred percent of the time. It's just not going
Speaker 3: to happen.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that the only reason when you came back
Speaker 1: last year, it was because Conrad Green was back. You
Speaker 1: felt like, you know, your people were back. Were you
Speaker 1: were you still nervous at all going back. I know
Speaker 1: it can be tied to a lot of emotions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I wasn't. I was really excited too, because
Speaker 3: it you know, obviously I left in a manner that
Speaker 3: wasn't of my choosing. Yeah, and I you know, I
Speaker 3: kind of grieved that camaraderie and that sense of work
Speaker 3: family that we had really built over the fifteen years
Speaker 3: I was there, so to go back. I think I
Speaker 3: posted when I was back for the rehearsal day. It
Speaker 3: was me with several of the dancers, and my caption
Speaker 3: was like I never left, because that's what it felt like.
Speaker 3: And I was just greeted so warmly by everybody, and
Speaker 3: it really felt like I had never left. Alfonso and
Speaker 3: I did a really really funny video where he walks
Speaker 3: into what had been my dressing room and I'm on
Speaker 3: the couch meditating, which I always used to do between
Speaker 3: the dress rehearsal and the live show, and he comes
Speaker 3: in and he's going Tom. I said, Oh, I'm sorry, Alfonso,
Speaker 3: I'm just you know, back in my old routine meditating
Speaker 3: in my dressing room before the show. He goes, wait
Speaker 3: a minute, Tom, now this is my dressing room, And
Speaker 3: as I stand up apologetically, I said, well, that explains
Speaker 3: why it took so long to pick the lock. But
Speaker 3: it was just lovely. It was a wonderful experience. It
Speaker 3: was it put a nice sweet button on the time
Speaker 3: that I was associated with the show, and I couldn't
Speaker 3: have been happier. And Derek and Hayley and raych they
Speaker 3: built this incredible open that paid tribute to the original
Speaker 3: pros that took youah gorgeous journey and a dance journey
Speaker 3: through the entire twenty years of the show. And then
Speaker 3: and of course I'm waiting. I'm standing behind this massive
Speaker 3: led wall YEP, which I know is going to open.
Speaker 3: I'll be backlit with smoke. I mean, it was you know,
Speaker 3: my ego was an overdrive at that point, but it
Speaker 3: was just such a lovely gesture, and you know, Derek's
Speaker 3: stated desire to really give me a nice entrance was
Speaker 3: so appreciated. So yeah, I just had nothing but fondness
Speaker 3: about that night and going.
Speaker 1: Back, well, you got a front row seat as a
Speaker 1: guest judge among Carrie, Anne Bruno and Derek, a few
Speaker 1: of whom found themselves with some online criticism this year.
Speaker 1: People never seem happy with the judging. How hard is
Speaker 1: that job?
Speaker 3: Well, it was easy for me. I was one and done.
Speaker 3: And also, you know, at the risk of just sounding
Speaker 3: like an old guy, don't you know these these people
Speaker 3: on line about anything, the hell with him? You know,
Speaker 3: it's just I mean, you've got to take something seriously,
Speaker 3: somebody you know, scratching their shorts and their parents' basement typing.
Speaker 3: But you know, you got to let that roll off
Speaker 3: your back and just do the job, you know, and
Speaker 3: just can you look in the mirror and say, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm doing it the way I think I should be
Speaker 3: doing it. Uh, People, you're not going to please everybody.
Speaker 2: That would be boring yea, absolutely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I think you know that it's it's really
Speaker 3: tough to see some of the the vitriol they you know,
Speaker 3: just some of the stuff that they had to put
Speaker 3: up with.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, especially carry Anne this year, I
Speaker 1: really feel like this year it was it was just unfair.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And there's almost like a feeding frenzy, isn't there
Speaker 3: it's always like, oh, who are we going to attack
Speaker 3: this season? Okay, it's gonna and that everybody just gotta
Speaker 3: gets on board. So I don't have a lot of
Speaker 3: patience for trolling.
Speaker 1: Yeah I don't either. I really felt for Carrie in
Speaker 1: this year in particular. I really there were a couple
Speaker 1: of times I went over to her privately and was
Speaker 1: just like, I am furious.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: When Alfonso came on the podcast, we talked about the
Speaker 1: one piece of advice he gave us all at the
Speaker 1: kickoff dinner, and that was to remember that it is
Speaker 1: a reality show at the end of the day. What
Speaker 1: would you say your one piece of advice for contestants
Speaker 1: joining the show would be today.
Speaker 3: Well, well, I'll answer it sort of indirectly. One of
Speaker 3: the things that I was known for. I don't think
Speaker 3: Alfonso probably followed in this respect. My dress rehearsals were
Speaker 3: really like NC seventeen. They were I got everything out
Speaker 3: of my system in the dress rehearsal that.
Speaker 2: You didn't have to worry about it in the live show.
Speaker 3: Would have been canceled instantly. But the reason I did
Speaker 3: it was to break up the couples, like especially in
Speaker 3: those early weeks. It was a way of saying, don't
Speaker 3: take it. You know, do the work, but don't take
Speaker 3: it so seriously that you lose the joy. You lose
Speaker 3: the fun, you lose the absurdity of this environment. I mean,
Speaker 3: you're in a makeshift ballroom with mirror balls and glittering
Speaker 3: spray tanning and and you know, all paddles, and you know,
Speaker 3: don't lose sight of how deliciously ludicrous this all is.
Speaker 3: Totally so, you know, as opposed to maybe having a
Speaker 3: chat with you at a dinner. I put it into
Speaker 3: practice in the rehearsals as a way of saying, and
Speaker 3: then I would throw a party, which I think they
Speaker 3: still do mid season. So great that I would throw
Speaker 3: for the staff, cast and crew, and there were no
Speaker 3: plus ones allowed. I love that. So it would just
Speaker 3: be different departments that might not otherwise mingle in the
Speaker 3: course of the season because it's a big machine to
Speaker 3: put that show on there, and they would all get
Speaker 3: to mingle, and later in the week I'd get the
Speaker 3: benefit of hearing about hangovers and hookups.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was great. It was money well spent.
Speaker 2: Perfect.
Speaker 1: You mentioned spray tans, which is something I have now
Speaker 1: not been able to shake since doing dancing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I also did the tour, and I
Speaker 1: did a month of the tour, and I became just
Speaker 1: completely obsessed.
Speaker 2: With being tan all the time. Did you ever get
Speaker 2: a spray tan.
Speaker 3: No, I I held out deliberately to be the pasty
Speaker 3: old white guy.
Speaker 2: Someone has to represent, someone has to represent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So No, I never did that, and I would.
Speaker 3: I would just caution you, Danielle, if you're if you're
Speaker 3: still addicted, I am there. There are Spray Tanner's anonymous
Speaker 3: meetings all across the country.
Speaker 2: I'm going to need that number.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, you'll see a lot of people in various
Speaker 3: stages of tanning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, bright orange, pasty white. We're all there. Weresented. Okay.
Speaker 1: Another thing I'd love your opinion on are people who
Speaker 1: are judging both the audience and the judges behind the desk.
Speaker 1: Should they be judging the dancing or the journey?
Speaker 3: Well, I think you can appreciate the journey, but ultimately
Speaker 3: you have to judge the dance, Okay, you know, I
Speaker 3: really think that. I mean, the journey is what makes
Speaker 3: it compelling television to come back to every week. For
Speaker 3: the viewer, and certainly it's a story that is told
Speaker 3: from each couple's perspective as the season unfolds. But in
Speaker 3: the moment, you know, that shouldn't weigh on the judges' reactions.
Speaker 3: They should just be judging what they saw right then.
Speaker 3: And that's what I did. You know, I didn't do
Speaker 3: it from a technique standpoint, But what did that make
Speaker 3: me feel? And I don't care what your journey is.
Speaker 3: What were those two minutes like to me? You know,
Speaker 3: I think that's the way to go now.
Speaker 1: As I don't know that we would call you a fan,
Speaker 1: but as someone watching, what would you like to see next?
Speaker 1: For the franchise second season? Every year a non celebrity season,
Speaker 1: we already mentioned that that would probably be prick to
Speaker 1: bring all stars.
Speaker 3: I made my desire pretty clear. I think they should
Speaker 3: have brought back the result show. I agree, which I
Speaker 3: guess they're not doing. I guess they unveiled their fall schedule,
Speaker 3: and you know, they might be right. They seem to
Speaker 3: be doing very well without a result show. My only
Speaker 3: feeling was it just wasn't fair to a large swath
Speaker 3: of the country that they're either voting blind or not
Speaker 3: voting at all, because it's you know, it's already by
Speaker 3: the time it gets to the you know, the last
Speaker 3: two time zones especially, it's all done. Yes, you know,
Speaker 3: somebody's already been voted off hours ago. Your vote doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: And in the old days, when we had a result
Speaker 3: show the next day, everybody's vote mattered because you'd vote
Speaker 3: as you saw the show in your time zone, and
Speaker 3: so all of those votes were tabulated. So that would
Speaker 3: have been my I don't think two seasons is a
Speaker 3: good eye yeah, because it, you know, it just wears
Speaker 3: down the anticipation. There's just so much to watch on
Speaker 3: television now. I know, with you know, TV networks and
Speaker 3: streaming services and all that that it could get lost
Speaker 3: in the shuffle. So I think one season a year
Speaker 3: is good. But I would I would say, a half
Speaker 3: hour result show the next night.
Speaker 2: I think that'd be I think that'd be great.
Speaker 1: I'm right there with you. And finally, and this is
Speaker 1: one I am all ears for. What do you think
Speaker 1: makes a good host other than talking to just the
Speaker 1: one person?
Speaker 3: Well, I think and again I'll just use my love,
Speaker 3: which is live television. It's it's it's an ability to
Speaker 3: be present. And this is true whether it's a live
Speaker 3: show or a tape show, or location or studio. Are
Speaker 3: you here now?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Are you in this moment, fielding as much potential as
Speaker 3: you can from the environment you're in. It's why I meditate.
Speaker 3: You know that meditation is all about being present. It's
Speaker 3: why I would meditate between the dress rehearsal and the
Speaker 3: live show, going out on that stage, knowing, you know,
Speaker 3: knowing there are seven hundred people at that time in
Speaker 3: the in the ballroom audience and millions watching.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I was like a kid in a candy store.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It was because it was like, what's going to happen?
Speaker 3: I know, I'm ready. I know I'm ready, and and
Speaker 3: so that to not lose the joy of it, and
Speaker 3: to not be in your head so much that you're
Speaker 3: not here now. Don't think about what happened earlier, don't
Speaker 3: think about what you might do later. Make sure you're present.
Speaker 3: I think that's it.
Speaker 2: What type of meditation do you do?
Speaker 3: I do TM popularized back in the days of the Beatles.
Speaker 3: But I think you know, they'll they'll take issue, I'm sure,
Speaker 3: but I think meditation is meditation. It just it's coke
Speaker 3: and pepsi. You know. The key is do you have
Speaker 3: a word, a sound, a place that you focus on
Speaker 3: to build a mental muscle. And it's similar to like,
Speaker 3: you know, with the gym, we go to the gym
Speaker 3: to build physical muscles. Meditation builds through repetition, a mental
Speaker 3: muscle so that you're better able to determine, at least
Speaker 3: in my experience, incoming stress. So you don't treat everything equally,
Speaker 3: you know. It's like because all of us every day,
Speaker 3: you know, shit happens and it's coming at you, and
Speaker 3: when you're present, when you're centered, you can determine better
Speaker 3: whether this deserves your attention or you can just like, oh,
Speaker 3: that's just flotsam and jetsam.
Speaker 1: That's you know, don't have to worry about that flotsam
Speaker 1: and jetsam.
Speaker 3: I think it's yeah, it's not a law firm. It's
Speaker 3: just like, oh, that a law firm of flotsam and jetson.
Speaker 2: Have you been injured on the job, Yeah, yeah, me too.
Speaker 3: But I tell people who say, oh, you know, I
Speaker 3: try meditating, but I always have thoughts getting in the way,
Speaker 3: so do I. The key is not to beat yourself
Speaker 3: up about it. The key is not to judge yourself
Speaker 3: when you're aware that your focal point is shifting, without judgment.
Speaker 3: Just I said, treat it like styrofoam on the top
Speaker 3: of a river. Just reach up, move it down, Yeah,
Speaker 3: and get back to whatever your focal point is. And
Speaker 3: you keep doing that and it keeps building that muscle,
Speaker 3: and yeah, I think, and it has repercussions throughout your life. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it really does.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely taking away from this interview and conversation that
Speaker 1: I need to start incorporating that more. I used to.
Speaker 1: I used to start my morning with meditation, and then
Speaker 1: you know, I've got a six year old and a
Speaker 1: four year old, and you know I got mine. Now
Speaker 1: my morning's are filled with packing lunches and trying to
Speaker 1: scarf down at least one hot cup of coffee at
Speaker 1: some point, and I've kind of lost that practice. But
Speaker 1: you're right that it helps in so many different aspects
Speaker 1: and avenues of life.
Speaker 3: You just carve out whenever, you know, whenever they're at
Speaker 3: school or or whatever. You know, if you've got even
Speaker 3: five or ten minutes, just sometimes in traffic, I'll be
Speaker 3: on the four h five and I'll just go in
Speaker 3: my heir now am I present? Am I getting too
Speaker 3: irritated at you know, the guy who's directional has been
Speaker 3: on for the last three miles?
Speaker 2: Exactly are you getting over or not?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly. So it helps in those moments to kind of,
Speaker 3: you know, stop and smell the roses a bit.
Speaker 1: Tom. Thank you so much for spending your very precious
Speaker 1: time with me today.
Speaker 3: It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1: I have so enjoyed this. I'm sorry I was voted
Speaker 1: off in week eight and didn't get to, you know,
Speaker 1: enjoy hearing how my dance made you feel.
Speaker 2: But I hope I get to see you again.
Speaker 1: I feel like once you are a part of the
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars family, you never really leave, and
Speaker 1: they have embraced me so warmly, So I hope that
Speaker 1: I get to see you again.
Speaker 3: That'd be great, That'd be great.
Speaker 1: Thank you and a pleasure, Danielle, and I would be
Speaker 1: remiss if I did not tell you that. Richard Leecock,
Speaker 1: it just loves you. He's that's my trainer at the gym.
Speaker 1: He's my trainer. Gat gosh, he's wonderful. He's a great trainer,
Speaker 1: and he's a wonderful man.
Speaker 3: He is, indeed and we're good buddies and the two
Speaker 3: of us with Jonathan Franks from Star Trek. It's actually
Speaker 3: a couple times a year we try to get lunch.
Speaker 3: I love it together. But yeah, Richard's he's a class act.
Speaker 2: Yes he is, and so are you. Thank you for
Speaker 2: being here.
Speaker 3: All the best.
Speaker 1: Danielle with the Stars Produced and hosted by Danielle Fischl.
Speaker 1: Executive Producers Jensen Carponamy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production,
Speaker 1: Danielle Romo, producer, editor and engineer Tara Sudbosch. Theme song
Speaker 1: by Justin Siegel. Follow us on Instagram at Danielle wood
Speaker 1: Stars and vote for me