Tom Bergeron | Pure Dancing with the Stars

More Changes Coming For Dancing With The Stars Season 17??

As previously reported, Dancing With The Stars is trimming back to one show a week next season. Get ready as there may be even more changes coming. According to the NY Post, there is going to be a shake up at the judges table. Also, Derek Hough, Mark Ballas, and Cheryl Burke may not be returning. Also, eliminations are expected to happen at the beginning of each show. Interesting. Here is more….

After 16 seasons, TV’s top-rated competition show is being cut to one night a week and given a radical makeover— which will likely include a shakeup at the judge’s table.

“No one has a confirmed contract yet,” a show source tells The Post. “I think Bruno [Tonioli] will be back, but Carrie Ann [Inaba] and Len [Goodman] are probably gone.

“The network has been very evasive about it.”

“Dancing” will also be losing several of its most popular professionals.

Four-time champ Derek Hough will sit out next season to work on a new scripted show about the world of dance for the Starz cable network. Fellow pro Mark Ballas is also reportedly in talks to appear in his own reality show.

Fan favorite Cheryl Burke is also unlikely to return, the sources say.

“[The producers] will use this time to figure out how to restructure the show and trim fat off the budget,” the insider says. “The show has become too expensive.”

ABC has declined to confirm whether the dancers or contestants will be asked to accept pay cuts now that the Tuesday night results shows have been scrapped.

Eliminations are now expected to be announced at the beginning of each new episode.

Dancing With The Stars Season 16 Finale After Party On GMA

What a fun “Good Morning America” today. All through out the show, they partied with our four finalists from interviewing them and asking them trivia questions. Their family and friends also had guest spots congratulating them. Kellie’s husband gave her a cute little puppy. At the end, they wrapped up the show with the couples favorite dances. Tom Bergeron, Louis van Amstel, and Chelsie Hightower helped out with the party as well!! You can see some of GMA’s coverage at ABC. Below are some you tube videos of the coverage as well (thanks to @dwtsgossip for the heads up on these).

DWTS Host Tom Bergeron Is Interviewed About The 300th Episode, The Finals, New Format, and More

Below is Tom Bergeron talking with Fox 11 (thanks to Elmari for this gem) and Access Hollywood about Dancing With The Stars, the 300th episode, the Finals and why they decided to go with 4 couples, America’s Funniest Videos, and more. I always love interviews with Tom…

OK Magazine also has an article up with Tom and Bruno talking about the 300th episode and the new format next season…

“I’m a glass half full kind of guy,” says Tom. “I get the rationale behind it. There’s no denying the numbers have been slipping. On the plus side we still beat The Voice last night by two million viewers, but they are beating us in the demo and that’s what the advertisers look to and that’s the strategy behind, I think, pushing the Tuesday viewers into a Monday show.”

While the logistics of the new format have yet to be worked out, Tom thinks eliminating an hour from the series each week will help the show feel more robust in its content.

“There have been times in the past, and this will not come as a news flash to you, late in the season we’re stretching to fill two hours,” he admits. “It’s sort of like, how much water can you put in the soup? This will afford us the luxury of not having to worry about that. We’ve gone from sometimes stretching to fill the three hours to now saying, okay, we’ve got an embarrassment of riches here with what we can do in two. Interestingly the research we’ve had over the past few years shows that only about 40 percent of our Tuesday viewers have watched the Monday show. I would’ve thought there’d be much more crossover.”

Judge Bruno Tonioli supports the changes as well and is excited to see what the production team will do to rework the series. Of course, cutting back on the number of hours DWTS is allotted each week probably means we won’t have the opportunity to see Bruno strut his stuff on the dancefloor again, like he was coerced into doing with Peta Murgatroyd and Sean Lowe during their encore “YMCA” performance this season.

“When they made me do the ‘YMCA’—that wasn’t expected,” says Bruno. “That was a surprise because I thought I only had to kind of mess around and then I had to turn up and learn the whole routine with 25 year old dancers. You should have hear my language—it was not for printing. But then after that I really enjoyed it so it was going back after 30 years of dancing sharing the stage with the kids, which I really enjoyed. In retrospect it was good. If I had known I would have said no.”

More at OK Magazine.

Katie Couric And Louis Van Amstel Cha Cha For Dancing With The Stars Judges And Hosts

What a fun segment on the Katie Couric show yesterday!! Look how Louis van Amstel taught Katie how to Cha Cha. Then they performed for Brooke Burke-Charvet, Tom Bergeron, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman. So cute. We need Katie to do Dancing With The Stars next season. For those new to the site, this isn’t the first time there has been talk of this. Come on, Katie! Please do Dancing With The Stars.

I hope this video works. If not, see this link.

Dancing With The Stars Host Tom Bergeron “American TV Legend”

While speaking to the Archive of American Television about his decades-long career in television, Tom Bergeron speaks about Dancing With The Stars and how it’s motivated him to stay in shape. He’s in better shape now than when he was 30. He’s a hoot too, as always, and talks of how this interview is like a hostage situation. In all seriousness, Tom couldn’t be happier to have had the best gigs in the world. More below….

Coverage With Tom Bergeron On GMA And More DWTS Season 16 Media!

Dancing With The Stars host Tom Bergeron joined the GMA crew to talk about Dancing With The Stars today before heading out to California to do the show Monday night!!! GMA first starts out doing a report on his co-host Brooke Burke Charvet and her photo spread and “healthy message” interview with Health Magazine. In the piece, they report on how close Brooke gets to some of the contestants on Dancing With The Stars. For instance, Brooke was close with Rob Kardashian. Tom joins in to comment on Brooke and the joy, warmth, and positive energy Brooke brings to the show. More in detail HERE!! Stay tuned, they may add more with Tom at the link a little later.

Also, don’t miss seeing a few more “First Meetings” of the couples when you get a moment at MSN. Thanks to @DWTSGossip for the heads up on these gems today.

DWTS 16: What Was it Like to Be At the Cast Announcement?

…thankfully, we have someone to tell us! Kristina (our reader who was able to confirm there was a 12th couple – thanks again!) was fortunate enough to nab tickets to the announcement, and was gracious enough to share her experience with us. Here’s some tidbits she gave us about what’s it’s really like to be there live…

Courtney: First off, you have to get up REALLY early, don’t you?

Kristina: There was a 2:30 AM call time for the studio audience, and I got there at 2. It was held at a nice ABC studio, and they fed us breakfast.

C: And here I was bitching about getting up at 7 AM EST to live blog the announcement! What can you tell us about the crowd, Kristina?

K: The audience was pretty small, and about half of it was press people. There were no phones allowed, because they didn’t want anyone taking pictures. Everyone seemed kind of quiet, and it wasn’t really the same party atmosphere that the show has. (Kristina has actually attended quite a few DWTS tapings in the past!)

C: Can’t say I blame everyone for being a bit quiet – I would be too if I had to get up that early! What were Tom & Brooke like?

K: Tom was quick-witted as always and we got the chance to chat with him briefly. Also managed to exchange a quick “Hello, how are you?” with Brooke. Tom’s coattails were all crumpled in the back – some sort of wardrobe malfunction. He actually did a funny walk to make fun of it once he noticed!

C: Ok, now I’m jealous that you got to interact with the Berge Did you interact at all with Sam & Lara?

K: Gal sitting next to me was a huge GMA fan, and she got to chat with Sam a bit. Sam kept getting caught in between Sasha & Emma as they were dancing! I was also surprised to see the anchors whipping out their own makeup to touch-up in between takes – while Brooke had her makeup girl come out to reapply her lipstick and Tom was hollering for powder for someone else, Lara was touching her own makeup up. Poor Lara actually had to have her dress fixed right before the live broadcast, because they found out during the pre-broadcast screen test that the bottom of it was see-through.

C: Nice to know that anchors, like us, are human too Anything else funny happen before the announcement?

K: One of the chairs they had on stage for the celebs kept coming unlatched, and we audience members were yelling tips to the people on-stage to try and help them to fix it. Sasha & Emma kept having to start their dance over, because the music was coming on at random times. It would be like “1, 2, 3, GO!” and there would be no music…and then it would start a few seconds later.

C: So tell us about the celebs.

K: Jacoby was hilarious! Gave us quite a nice little preview of what to expect this season. LOTS of cheering for Wynnona from quite a few fans in the audience. Andy was funny too, and tried to get everyone to start cheering “DICK! DICK!” in response to Wynonna’s fans cheering “Wy! Wy!” Audience seemed to be pleasantly surprised when Dorothy’s name was announced, too. I actually brought my Kellie Pickler CD along with me in hopes that I could get her to sign it when I read about Kellie being rumored for this season at Pure We got to watch as they took their group photo – it was funny, they wanted the DWTS logo in the background, but the projector guy had already left for the day! They managed to get it back, though, and it was cool to see the whole cast standing together for the first time.

C: Really??? We love hearing that So in your opinion, who are the big contenders this season?

K: Dorothy for sure! Probably Jacoby too – he showed us some nice moves. And probably Kellie too, since she has Derek. I actually shouted out “We love you Derek Hough!” at my daughter’s request before we left the show…not sure people appreciated it, hehe.

C: I bet Heidi would have appreciated it

Thanks once again to Kristina for giving us a peek behind the scenes of the annoucement, and being patient with me as I got bogged down with my 9-5 this week and didn’t get this posted immediately after the announcement Kristina has actually been fortunate enough to attend quite a few tapings of the show itself (one of the advantages of living in CA), and in the future, we may get more behind-the-scenes POV’s from her on tapings she attends. In the meantime, you can follow her on Twitter @KrismissHampton and chat about all things DWTS – she’s good people

kristinagmaaudience

Kristina at the annoucement…she’s the lovely lady in red

Dancing with the Stars Season 16: Cast Announcement Live Blog!!!

Woohoooooo! After weeks of few casting rumors and a hectic week of pro watching, the big day is finally here: today we find out who’s going to be dancing on season 16, and who they’ll be dancing with (I presume). I’m assuming this cast announcement is going to pretty closely mirror the season 14 cast announcement, which was also on GMA: they kill time and tantalize us with periodic clues and whatnot for the first hour or so, then they announce all of the celebs, take a commercial break, announce which pro each celeb is paired with, take another commercial break, have a brief Q&A session with the couples, and then they’re done. A lot less painless than sitting through the fauxmance and schlock of The Bachelor, if you ask moi

First, a few ground rules: please, please, PLEASE do NOT keep hitting refresh repeatedly on this page! We keep upgrading our server, but during high-traffic times (such as the cast announcement), things tend to get a bit…wonky. If you keep hitting refresh, I cannot get in the dash to update the page, and thus nobody gets any updates. Try to keep the refreshing limited to every 15 minutes, k? You can also feel free to follow @puredwts on Twitter – Heidi will be tweeting the names as they’re announced as well. Also, if you’re watching the announcement yourself (or are carefully monitoring Twitter/the interwebs) and hear the names, PLEASE – do not post them in the comments if you don’t see them posted in the body of the post (looking at YOU, Grant). Not only does this also clog up the server and prevent me from updating the post, it also irritates the hell out of me, as I am not a) Amish, b) broke, or c) living in a van down by the river, and I, like you, have television, internet, and Twitter. If you don’t see it posted, it’s because I’m still trying to get into the dash – not because I don’t see it.

UPDATE: Moving the list of couples up to the top of the page for those who don’t want to hear all my play-by-plays I went ahead and put Sean & Peta on the list, but they are by no means a sure thing…

ETA2: We’ve confirmed there is, indeed, a 12th couple…but no official source stating that it’s Sean & Peta. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t them, though.

Celebrity	Height	Pro Height	Pro
Wynonna Judd	5’5″	6’1″	Tony
D.L. Hughley	5’7″	5’4″	Cheryl
Jacoby Jones	6’2″	5’5″	Karina
Lisa Vanderpump	5’6″	6’1″(?)	Gleb
Andy Dick	5’10″	5’5″	Sharna
Victor Ortiz	5’9″		Lindsay
Zendaya	5’10″	5’11″	Val
Aly Raisman	5’2″	5’8″	Mark
Ingo Rademacher	6’2″	5’7″	Kym
Kellie Pickler	5’1″	5’10″	Derek
Dorothy Hamill	5’3″	5’11″	Tristan
Sean Lowe (?)	6’2″	5’7″	Peta (?)

Ok, now that that’s settled, on with the show!!! Read more..

DWTS Season 16 – William Shatner Figuring Out The Schedules For DWTS?

As you know from a previous posting, Dancing With The Stars host Tom Bergeron has been on a quest to get William Shatner to dance on Dancing With The Stars. Tom told The View ladies last week that he saw William at a recent event and William looked at him strangely when Tom mentioned it. Well, the saga continues. Last night, William Shatner posted this tweet (look below) about “figuring out the schedules for DWTS” which makes one wonder if Tom’s quest is working? Then again, maybe they are just trying to figure out when to have dinner. I also love the mention on Jeri Ryan who, by the way, tweeted “we’re in!” back to William. Wouldn’t she be a great candidate for Dancing With The Stars as well? Tom is communicating with William at his twitter too. Before William tweeted him, Tom extended an invite while taping America’s Funniest Videos. Anyway, what an interesting tweet from William Shatner. Yes, taking things out of context or grasping at straws most likely, but, it’s fun to speculate on and talk about none the less.

Heidi: Odds are good that they’re all just screwing around – I seem to recall a lot of back and forth joking with Tom about Shatner and Jeri being on DWTS. What I find most funny is how Tom is now doing casting. I believe he also tried to get Bill on AFV this past week. Really, though, the dude is funny. I would love to see him on DWTS. I came to appreciate him on Boston Legal. By the way: pretty sure that Tom could do a better job at casting DWTS than the current crew.

Tom Bergeron Interviewed About Dancing With The Stars, Wants William Shatner To Dance

Tom Bergeron was a guest on The View today! He was asked straight up about the controversial rumors of Lindsay Lohan and Lance Armstrong dancing on Dancing With The Stars. He said he’d rather have William Shatner dance instead (Me TOO!). William looked at him strangely at a recent even when Tom mentioned it to him.

The View ladies also commended Tom for his long running work on America’s Funniest Home Videos for which he is filming currently.

Unfortunately, it was a short segment. I was hoping he’d be asked on the Dancing With The Stars cast announcement, but, he wasn’t.