KATCHING MY I: Cha-cha change! Len Goodman, 70, set to quit Dancing With The Stars after next season

Monday 8 December 2014

Cha-cha change! Len Goodman, 70, set to quit Dancing With The Stars after next season

PUBLISHED: 19:23, 8 December 2014 | UPDATED: 20:54, 8 December 2014

He has been sitting on the judges panel since the show sashayed on to ABC in 2005.

And now Len Goodman has revealed that he will say farewell to Dancing With The Stars after the 2015 spring season.

The 70-year-old Brit has been splitting his time between Los Angeles and London, where he has judged Strictly Come Dancing, the original U.K. version, since its debut in 2004,

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Cutting back his workload: Dancing With The Stars judge Len Goodman has revealed that he will be stepping down after the end of the upcoming season of the ABC show

'Next year, I'm not going to do the flying backwards and forwards – I'm not going to do the American show... I've got to have a bit of time off,' Len said, according to Digital Spy.

'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.

'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.

Prime panel: The smiling 70-year-old with his fellow judges Carrie Ann Inabu, Julianne Hough and Bruno Tonioli

'I'm doing the spring (season) when I go out there... and that's going to be my last one.'

Dancing With The Stars celebrates its 10th anniversary and 20th series in 2015. 'So I think that's a nice place to stop,' Len added.

The dance expert shares the judges panel with Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.

Len visits Sadie Robertson as she preps for DWTS finals

High marks indeed: Len has decided that he needs to spend more time in London with his family

Former pro-dancer Julianne Hough was added as a permanent fourth judge on the panel for the recently wrapped season 19, amid rumours that Len might be stepping back,

However, the septuagenarian insisted that he won't be leaving Strictly Come Dancing any time soon.

He said: 'Listen, let me tell you that without Strictly coming along 10 years ago when I was 60 years old – without them coming along and asking me to be one of the judges, I would never have done anything.

British panel: He will remain on Strictly Come Dancing where he shares the judges table with Bruno, former ballerina Darcey Bussell and choreographer and director Craig Revel Horwood

'I'd never have done the American show, I'd never do other little things that I've done.

'And so I feel a loyalty towards the BBC. 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.'

Len Goodman speaks to Jimmy Kimmel about his youth