More than a decade later, Brooke Burke still has some thoughts about her "Dancing With the Stars" exit.
The former host and Season 7 winner of the ABC reality dance competition series opened up about her firing in a Sept. 3 episode of "The Tamsen Show" podcast.
After co-hosting for seven seasons from 2010 to 2013, Burke said the show's producers told her she would not return after her contract was up. After losing her job, several questions flooded her mind and Burke, who was 42 at the time, reflected on why she was let go after co-hosting seasons 10 to 17 with Tom Bergeron.
"Was it me? Nobody that loves you breaks up with you. If they really loved me, was I good enough? What kind of work was I really bringing to the ballroom? Was it my age? Are
they looking for a change? Was it culture? Was it ethnicity?" she told podcast host Tamsen Fadal. "There's all kinds of things that happen."
The author and wellness expert, now 54, explained that producers told her "they wanted to make a change," but she speculated that her replacement Erin Andrews was more "relevant at the time, maybe more pressworthy" or that Andrews' background as an ESPN reporter created "harmony" at the network.
She also said that Andrews "did an absolutely fine job" succeeding her while co-hosting for seasons 18 through 28.
USA TODAY has reached out to ABC for comment.
Brooke Burke explains why her emotions were 'complicated'
Burke said her emotions were complicated by the fact that she had an "epic and amazing" experience on the show, which led to relationships she continues to have in her life.
"So I had to chalk it up as that's the industry, and sometimes it's time for change," she said. "Rather than needing an answer, because in life, we don't get answers all the time. I just thought, 'Okay, there's a reason and I'm gonna walk out of this door with the same grace that I walked in with."
She said there was no heads-up about her firing, which made the time especially difficult because of her "tremendous" financial responsibilities as a mother of four children and because "those kind of shows don't come along often."
Burke said her options were limited due to her commitment to motherhood. "I wasn’t going to really explore a lot of the opportunities because I wanted to be home first and foremost, my priority was to be a mother," she said.
In a Nov. 4 episode of the "I Choose Me" podcast, Burke said she wouldn't fully dismiss the opportunity to return to the series. "I never say no, never closed doors professionally, but I mean, it was eight seasons, and I did everything I needed to do in the ballroom," she said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brooke Burke says she wondered if her age or ethnicity led to 'DTWS' firing
