New Entertainment Weekly Interview With Tom Bergeron Before The DWTS Finale Season 17

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tom Bergeron gives his thoughts on the new format of Dancing With The Stars 17. He also talks of the guest judges, the Glitter Pit vs. Celebriquarium, the switch-up challenge, and more. He’s a crack-up as always too! Read below….

How well do you understand ballroom dance?
Um, certainly better than I did in 2005. But there are styles of ballroom that I couldn’t tell you the difference. For example, one of the things we did this season was the Switch Up Dance Challenge — the music and dance style changed throughout the number. I was doing my usual low-toned commentary–

Tom’s Golf Announcer Voice!
Exactly, and I had several people comment to me, “Wow, you were able to talk about the different styles of dance so quickly!” Here’s what was really going on. Sharna [Burgess, a pro] was sitting right next to me. She had a piece of paper and a Sharpie — a Sharna Sharpie — and she’d write down some of the dances. Some of them I knew for sure, and it’s true that I can tell when it’s a rumba or tango or paso doble, those more obvious ones. But some of these had subtler changes, so Sharna was jotting them down and I was just reading what she was saying.

What is Sharna’s handwriting like?
Very legible! She did a great job, it was like we’d done it many times before.

I thought they’d have set you up with that dance info well before the show!
No, because the order we used in the live show wasn’t what we did in the dress rehearsal. So it was all on the fly.

Looking forward to Monday night?
I always love the freestyle, so I’m looking forward to those. But the number of musical acts we have coming up Monday and Tuesday — we’ve got Kellie Pickler, TLC, Lady Antebellum, Colbie Caillat, Enrique Iglesias… and Ylvis! What does the fox say?

Can we expect a reprise of that ‘Fox’-y Team Freestyle?
I’d say that’s a safe bet.

Anything else you want to say about season 17?

Just make sure you watch the two-night finale… liiiiiiiive!

More at Entertainment Weekly.