Last fall, Dancing with the Stars head judge, Len Goodman, took a sabbatical from the show in order to avoid flying back and forth to appear on both the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and DWTS. It made sense that Len would want to stay in his homeland, England, to continue his association with the show where it all began in 2004.
But now, Len has decided to give up Strictly. He hasn’t made a formal announcement yet, but Grumpy Goodman may be returning to DWTS for at least the next few cycles.
The BBC announced this morning that Len would leave the show at the end of this year. So one more cycle with Strictly and that’s it. Len released a statement via the network:
“In 2004, I was asked to take part in a brand new BBC Saturday night show and who would have thought me, old Len Goodman, would still be part of this amazing series more than ten years on.
“This adventure began when I was 60 and now that I’ve reached my 70s, I’ve decided after this year it’s time to hand the role of head judge to someone else. It is an honour being part of the wonderful Strictly Come Dancing family and I’m looking forward to my last series very much and to whatever comes next.”
DWTS judge Bruno Tonioli will continue to do double duty on Strictly, and will no doubt be part of the big sendoff BBC is planning for Len at the end of the coming fall series.
