After spending nearly a quarter of his life as the host of “Dancing With the Stars,” Tom Bergeron, the 65-year-old host of the one-time ABC ratings juggernaut, has been dropped from the show, he announced on Twitter on Monday evening.
“Just informed @DancingABC will be continuing without me,” he wrote. “It’s been an incredible 15-year run and the most unexpected gift of my career.”
ABC and BBC Studios, the show’s production company, said in a joint statement that “Dancing With the Stars” would be pursuing “a new creative direction” and that Mr. Bergeron would not be part of it. Erin Andrews, the sports announcer and former contestant on the show, who had co-hosted with Mr. Bergeron since 2014, was also out, the statement said.
Ms. Andrews, who announced her departure on Twitter this morning, thanked Mr. Bergeron and the show’s cast for making her six seasons with the show memorable. “I will always cherish my days on set, even if I wasn’t the best at walking in heels,” she wrote.
Mr. Bergeron, a funnyman known for his wit and charisma, is the only star to have hosted every season of “Dancing With the Stars” since its 2005 debut. Although the show had once been a regular at the top of the ratings charts, viewership had been flagging in recent seasons. Last fall’s season finale attracted the show’s smallest-ever audience for a final episode.
Last year, Mr. Bergeron publicly aired his concerns about the decision to cast political guests on the show.
The comment came after the show decided to include Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary and communications director for President Trump, as a contestant.
Mr. Spicer took the stage for the Season 28 premiere in a garish, highlighter-yellow, ruffled shirt and tight white pants. His shimmy to the Spice Girls’s “Spice Up Your Life” alongside Lindsay Arnold, a professional dancer, was less than technically sound.
He joined a number of Republican-affiliated contestants who had appeared before him, including Bristol Palin, the daughter of Sarah Palin, the former G.O.P. vice-presidential candidate; and Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who ran for president.
Mr. Bergeron said he had met with the show’s new executive producer without success in an effort to ensure that the show “would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”
“We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but it’s ultimately their call,” he wrote on Twitter last August.
Before his “Dancing With the Stars” tenure, Mr. Bergeron was the face of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” the viewer-sourced TV series that he hosted for 15 seasons. He also hosted the game show “Hollywood Squares” from 1998 to 2004.
His departure came as an unwelcome surprise — Mr. Bergeron told “Access Hollywood” in 2012 that he wanted to host the show “’til they drag me kicking and screaming off the set.” But even amid his shock Monday evening, Mr. Bergeron managed to crack one final joke.
“Now what am I supposed to do with all of these glitter masks?” he tweeted.