Len Goodman retires from ‘Strictly Come Dancing,’ will continue on ‘Dancing with the Stars’

While tonight’s “Strictly Come Dancing” Christmas Special was a sad one in that it marked Len Goodman’s last appearance as judge on the long-running BBC show, there is one thing that you should still know: It’s not the end of the road for him by any means when it comes to scoring judges in a ballroom.

So what’s the reason for this? It seems that a lot of it has to do with his obligations that he’s already made to “Dancing with the Stars” here in America. Speaking on “This Morning,” Goodman made it clear that we will see him for at least one more year on ABC:

“With the BBC you just sign an annual contract so they can chuck you out or you can leave, but in America I had to do a two-year contract and I’ve done one, so I’ve got another year.” 

We do presume that doing the show this time around will be far easier for Len than it’s been in the past, mostly because of the fact that there will be much less of a travel commitment than there was in the past. The past few falls on “Dancing with the Stars” we’ve seen Len take some time off so that he can judge “Strictly” without having to fly between America and Great Britain on a weekly basis; meanwhile, he’s tended to stick around for the spring. That won’t be an issue anymore.

Whenever we do see Len leave the ballroom entirely, it’s going to be incredibly sad given that he is such a light to the art of dancing. He’s critical, but at the same time you can see that he loves what he does and sympathizes for the people willing to put themselves out there and do this.

For more on tonight’s Christmas Special, head over here to get some more news on the winner. (Photo: ABC.)