Len Goodman is retiring from the judge’s bench.
During the live broadcast of Dancing With the Stars on Monday night, the show’s longtime top judge declared that this will be his last year as a judge. Since the show’s first season in 2005, Goodman has been a part of all but two of the 31 seasons of the reality dance competition.
The conclusion of the next week will be Goodman’s farewell program, he announced. He commended the show and expressed his appreciation for it and his time spent on it, but he also said that he was looking forward to retiring so that he could spend more time with his grandchildren.
Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli, two of his other judges, started crying after hearing the news.
Goodman, a certified ballroom dancer himself, has played a crucial role in Dancing With the Stars since the show’s debut. From 2004 through 2016, he was a judge on the initial U.K. season of Strictly Come Dancing, where he started as head judge. From 2005 until his retirement from the British series in 2016, he had two jobs.
Before starting his broadcasting career, Goodman judged professional contests after winning the British Championships in dance. He is well-known in the ballroom dance community and also has a school in the United Kingdom.
Goodman, who brings his British stoicism and dry wit to his assessments of the competitors, has long been regarded as the toughest cookie on the judging panel. He is renowned for being difficult to please and frequently having higher expectations for the dancers than the other judges. In later seasons, he had also developed into something of a source of wisdom for the younger pros and their partners, despite his frequent comments drawing a chorus of “boos” from the studio audience.