‘Dancing With the Stars’ Premiere Honors Late Decide Len Goodman: “We Wished to Hold His Spirit Alive”

To kick off the season 32 premiere of Dancing With the Stars Tuesday, co-hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough honored late decide Len Goodman with a heartwarming tribute.

Goodman died at 78 in April after a battle with bone most cancers, his agent confirmed on the time. A couple of months prior, he retired from Dancing With the Stars, saying he needed to “spend extra time with my grandchildren and household” in the UK.

Ribeiro began off the present by acknowledging Goodman’s absence, saying, “We’re clearly lacking an enormous a part of our Dancing With the Stars household tonight.”

“Len was on this panel for practically all of our 31 seasons. And though he’s irreplaceable, we needed to maintain his spirit alive,” Hough added.

“And that’s why, as a tribute to him, we redesigned and renamed our final prize,” Ribeiro stated earlier than introducing the newly renamed Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.

Earlier this month, DWTS government producer Conrad Inexperienced revealed to USA At this time that the notorious mirrorball trophy had formally been renamed to honor Goodman.

“The Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy will now be lifted on Dancing With the Stars just like the Vince Lombardi trophy is lifted on the Tremendous Bowl,” Inexperienced stated on the time. “We needed to make Len a everlasting a part of this present, to at all times remind individuals the significance he’s needed to Dancing With the Stars and the way a lot he meant to all of us.”

Hough added throughout the premiere, “It’s so implausible that Len will at all times be going ahead with us.” She additionally teased a “spectacular tribute to Len from our dancers” within the coming weeks.

Earlier than Goodman appeared on Dancing With the Stars in 2005 till 2022, he was a head decide on Strictly Come Dancing, the British model of the present, from its launch on the BBC in 2004 till 2016.