'Dancing with the Stars' judge Len Goodman leaving show

Dancing with the Stars viewers will soon be missing "the 10 from Len."


Len Goodman, an original Dancing with the Stars judge, has announced he is leaving the ABC reality dancing competition after the upcoming twentieth season, People reported.

Goodman will sit on the judging panel again when Dancing with the Stars celebrates its tenth anniversary next year in the spring, but he has reportedly found traveling back and forth to England too much and therefore won't continue with the show after that.

"I've got my wife, I've got my son, my mother is still alive and she's in hospital -- I've had virtually no time to go and visit her," Goodman, who also judges Strictly Come Dancing in the U.K., reportedly said Monday.

"So, I just need a bit of time off to get on with a normal life. And it was either Strictly went or the American one went or the tour went... I'm doing the spring one when I go out there... and that's going to be my last one. Dancing with the Stars, next year is their 10th year... so I think that's a nice place to stop."


A guest judge filled in for Goodman on occasion last season when he was abroad. Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Julianne Hough served on the panel alongside him as regular judges for Season 19.

It appears Goodman has figured out his priorities.

"I feel a loyalty towards the BBC," Goodman told reporters, according to People. "I will do Strictly as long as they want me. Eventually, they will say, 'He's getting too old and fat now, Goodman, we'll have to get shot of him.' But all the time they would like me to do it, I will be doing it."

ABC declined comment on Goodman's departure.

While Goodman will be present on Dancing with the Stars next season, pro dancer Cheryl Burke -- who's been with the show since its second season -- will not be. As previously reported, her contract expired last month following the series' nineteenth edition.


Dancing with the Stars executive producer Rob Wade had recently told TheWrap that Hough will be coming back to judge the show in the spring.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski