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Bobby Bones Sends Back His DWTS Mirrorball After Tom Bergeron’s ‘Ouch’ Comment
Tom Bergeron is owning up to a comment he now wishes he’d phrased differently.
The longtime Dancing With the Stars host found himself walking back remarks he made about Bobby Bones’ surprising 2018 Mirrorball Trophy win. In a November 2025 Parade interview, Tom admitted he remembered thinking “Ouch” when Bobby was announced as the season’s champion — a comment that didn’t sit well with the radio star, who later revealed he actually sent his Mirrorball back because of the lingering negativity.
Once Bobby expressed that the remark hurt him, Tom stepped in to clear the air publicly.
“Sorry, Bobby,” Tom wrote in a November 13 Instagram post. “Sometimes I should fall back on my mime training.”
He paired the comment with a screenshot of a private message he sent Bobby explaining what he meant by the original statement.
“Bobby, it wasn’t my intention to hurt your feelings,” Tom wrote. “My ‘ouch’ was based on my honest feeling that your win spoke to a need to address the balance between judge and viewer voting.”
Tom, who hosted DWTS for nearly two decades before exiting in 2019, clarified that his reaction wasn’t meant as a jab at Bobby’s dancing but rather at how the fan-voting format played out that year. He also said he felt sympathy for Bobby’s pro partner, Sharna Burgess, who dealt with backlash after their win.
“I always felt bad that you and Sharna had to deal with the aftermath of that win,” he continued. “I certainly regret pouring any salt into that old wound.”
Tom added a brief acknowledgment that he had been doing a marathon of interviews for the show’s milestone season and worried he’d “say something inelegantly” along the way — which he now believes he did.
Bobby responded to the interview with his own frustration. In a November 12 Instagram post, he wrote that despite giving the competition his all, he’s “still catching strays” six years later — which led him to return the Mirrorball Trophy to the show.
“I had a great attitude,” he shared. “I worked hard and here we are six years later… so I sent the trophy back. They don’t want me to be a part of the show, obviously.”
Meanwhile, runner-up Milo Manheim, who lost to Bobby in one of the show’s most debated finales, has since taken the high road. Earlier this year, he admitted he once felt “robbed,” but now believes second place ended up being the “better” outcome.
“People come up all the time now, and they’re just like, ‘You killed Dancing with the Stars,’” he said on The Zack Sang Show. “And I don’t think I would be getting that validation had I won. So, it’s really nice.”
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