Former DWTS host Brooke Burke won’t take part in the show’s 20th birthday special
previous dancing with the stars host Brooke Burke After exiting in 2014, she will not return to the ballroom for the show’s 20th birthday special.
Burke, 54, explained why she won’t be attending the highly-anticipated event, which airs on Tuesday, November 4. Jenny Garth’s “I Choose Me” Podcast.
“It would be hard for me to do it again,” Burke told former contestant Garth, 53. “I guess there are things in your life that are worth repeating, but I feel like I’ve wrung it out and I did everything I needed to do on that show.”
Burke added that despite the “amazing relationships” she made during her tenure Distributed WTS As a contestant and co-host, she ultimately felt like her time on the show was over. “It’s one of the most watched shows on television. It’s hard to go back there with the same level of excitement and appreciation,” she said.
Garth joked that she also “received an email” about the special, which will air on November 11, but that she “purposely didn’t read it.”
Burke and Gase both paired with former pros Derek Hough – are now judges on the show – during their respective seasons. In 2007, Gase finished fourth in his fifth season (Hoff’s first), while Burke and Hoff took home the mirror ball two seasons later. Burke later co-hosted the show from seasons 10 to 17 with Tom Bergeron.
“I never say no, never close the door professionally, but I mean, that was eight seasons and I did everything I needed to do in ballroom,” Burke continued, adding that she “had a great time.” Distributed WTS Even though it was “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.”
This isn’t the first time Burke has spoken out about her exit Distributed WTS. She opened up about her firing in a 2024 episode BBQ with Curtis Stonerevealed that while she was “ready to do other things” at the time, it was “disappointing” to find out she hadn’t been asked to come back.
“But I think when things change in our business, just to be human, to be honest, to be vulnerable, it’s shocking,” she added. “I think it’s really disappointing. I didn’t expect this.”
As for why she was “fired,” Burke said there were “many reasons on both sides.”
Shortly after the news broke in 2014, Burke detailed how she learned she wouldn’t be returning for Season 18 on her Modern Mom blog.
“The only shocking thing to me was the way it all went down,” she wrote, claiming she found out “weeks” before the premiere. “I would like to be reminded and communicated politely, but we are not always fortunate enough to have that in the workplace.”
She also shared how difficult it was to tell her children because they didn’t understand the difference between being fired and being fired. (Burke has Neriah, 24, Sierra, 22, Heaven, 18, and Shaya, 16, with her ex Garth Fisher and David Charette.)
“My son yelled, ‘Mom, you’re fired?!'” she remembers her son Shaya asking her. “I tried to explain the difference between being fired and being laid off. Then he yelled, ‘You quit!’ and I laughed at the minutiae of it all. Then I tried my best to describe to my kids the reality of change and the need to deal with it gracefully.”
Burke isn’t the only one Distributed WTS Over the years, co-hosts have been asked to quit dancehall. Viewers were shocked when original host Bergeron announced in July 2020 that he and then-co-host Erin Andrews It will not be returning for Season 29.
“Just learned that @DancingABC will be moving on without me,” Bergeron wrote via X at the time. “It’s been an incredible 15 years and the most unexpected gift of my career. I’m grateful for it and the lifelong friendships I’ve made. Which is, now what do I do with all these glitter masks?”
He later appeared in an October 2023 episode Cheryl Burke’s The Sex, Lies & Spray Tan podcast discussed his exit, claiming that his desire to keep politics out of dancehall was part of the reason. (Bergeron has previously stated bluntly Sean Spicer’s Season 28 Casting. )
“I’m sure they’ll give you a different reason [as for why I was fired],” he added, noting that he would “never” return as host. “It’s not the same show. This is not the same world. Makes no sense. What do I have to prove? …Let this show either survive with the new blood it has now or die a natural death. “
Dancing with the Stars The 20th birthday special will air on Tuesday, November 11 at 8pm ET on ABC and Disney+. The show will be available on Hulu the next day.
