'Dancing With the Stars' 2014: Host Tom Bergeron Dishes On 'Problematic' Celebrity Judges [VIDEO]
Dancing With the Stars host Tom Bergeron recently spoke with fellow reality TV power player Nigel Lythgoe about the status of their shows and what they think of "celebrity" judges.
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Bergeron and Lythgoe sat down with Variety to discuss the various aspects of their shows (Lythgoe is a judge on So You Think You Can Dance), being very candid on what is good and bad about certain parts of reality television.
One key topic was that of celebrity judges. Dancing With the Stars featured a new celebrity guest judge almost every week, and Bergeron noted that after a while this could become "problematic."
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He said: "The viewers don't like to told, whether they think this consciously or not, here's a big star. They like to think, we're going to make a star. In the way they did with Simon [Cowell]. In the way they did with Randy [Jackson]. Brought the stardom back to Paula [Abdul], to use that as an example. There's a certain pride of ownership that viewers take when they latch onto something that hasn't been already dictated to them."
Among the celebrity judges during Season 18 of Dancing With the Stars were Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts, LMFAO member RedFoo, Latin pop singer Ricky Martin and Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller. This was the first time the show introduced so many guest judges in one season.
On a more positive note, Bergeron also commented on his favorite moment of the season, which also happened to be the final moments, with longtime pro dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy finally taking home the Mirrorball Trophy.
"People hadn't had the chance to see parts of his personality that I had - the gruff exterior with the marshmallow center that was very much in evidence," Bergeron said. "There was so much euphoria among the cast that he won for the first time, I was running around holding the trophy going, 'Will somebody take this?' The trophy became absolutely immaterial. Not that it's any great shakes. But what it represents was secondary to just this communal joy and camaraderie."
Dancing With the Stars Season 19 premieres in fall 2014 on ABC, returning to its regular Mondays at 8 p.m. timeslot. The network has not yet announced a specific premiere date, though it will likely be returning in mid-September like every fall edition of the show.
