“It was really because Conrad’s there, and you can tell,” he admitted. “Just look at what the show is doing. It’s having a resurgence. It’s doing things that I can’t imagine many, if any, 20-year-old shows have done. They’ve been on a ratings tear.”
He added, “You’re more likely to see a zebra playing the piano than watch the success they’re having.”
E! News has reached out to ABC for comment and has not yet heard back.
Tom had exited the series after 15 years, following the network’s decision to cast President Donald Trump‘s former Press Secretary Sean Spicer as a competitor for season 28.
“In the summer of 2019, I had two lunches—one with that showrunner person and another one with his boss,” Tom explained on the October 2023 appearance on fellow DWTS alum Cheryl Burke‘s podcast, Sex, Lies and Spray Tans. “I said, ‘Well, look, 2019 is the threshold to an election year in America, we are a very divided country. Just nobody, of any party, don’t go there—just make us the wonderful escape from all that divisiveness for two hours a week.”
