Tyra Banks named new host of ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ replacing Tom Bergeron

Tyra Banks, the former host of “America’s Next Top Model” and “America’s Got Talent,” has a new TV gig lined up. Tuesday night, ABC announced that Banks will be the new host, as well as an executive producer, of “Dancing With the Stars,” the long-running competition series that’s set to return for Season 29.
The news about Banks came not long after Tom Bergeron, who had hosted “Dancing With the Stars” for 15 years, broke the news on Twitter that he was being let go. As Bergeron wrote on Monday, “Just informed @DancingABC will be continuing without me. It’s been an incredible 15 year run and the most unexpected gift of my career. I’m grateful for that and for the lifelong friendships made. That said, now what am I supposed to do with all of these glitter masks?”
Erin Andrews, who competed on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2010 and has co-hosted with Bergeron since 2014, also got the heave-ho.
As CNN and others reported, ABC and BBC Productions, the companies that produce the series, said in a statement that they were taking the show in “a new creative direction.” The statement went on to say, as CNN noted, “Tom Bergeron will forever be part of the Dancing with the Stars family. As we embark on a new creative direction, he departs the show with our sincerest thanks and gratitude for his trademark wit and charm that helped make this show a success.”
Last year, Bergeron expressed disappointment over the casting of former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in Season 28 of “Dancing With the Stars.” Bergeron wrote on Twitter that he had previously told producers that he hoped “Dancing With the Stars” would be returning from a yearlong hiatus offering a “joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”