Tom Bergeron

Tom Bergeron
Bergeron in April 2009
Born	Thomas Bergeron (1955-05-06) May 6, 1955 Haverhill, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Television host, comedian, game show host
Years active	1981–present
Notable work	America's Funniest Home Videos (2001–2015) Dancing with the Stars (2005–present)

Thomas "Tom" Bergeron (born May 6, 1955) is an American television personality, comedian, and game show host.

A well known local media personality in his native New England during the 1980s and 1990s, he reached a national audience in the later part of the 1990s hosting several morning talk shows on various networks, culminating in 1996 with a gig as the regular guest host of ABC's Good Morning America. He has remained with the ABC network ever since, as the host of America's Funniest Home Videos (2001–2015) and Dancing with the Stars (2005–present). He has also hosted the syndicated game show Hollywood Squares (1998–2004), and a fill-in host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He has won both a Daytime Emmy Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Early life and career

Bergeron was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, son of the late Kay and Ray Bergeron. He is of French-Canadian and Irish descent.

His first job in broadcasting was as a disc jockey at local radio station WHAV, in his home town of Haverhill, Massachusetts. He became a popular radio DJ in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire in the early 1980s on Portsmouth's WHEB, where he played comedy records along with music and offbeat interviews. His popularity led to additional TV and radio auditions.

One of his first jobs on television was as host of a local game show, Granite State Challenge, on New Hampshire Public Television (produced at NHPTV flagship station WENH-TV). He moved to the Boston market in February 1982, joining WBZ-TV as a general on-air personality. His early roles at the station included being a contributor on Evening Magazine (1982–87), and hosting brief informational and show preview segments known as 4 Today, every 30 minutes during WBZ's daytime lineup (1983–87). In 1984, he landed the hosting spot on Lottery Live, the nightly drawings of the Massachusetts State Lottery games. By January 1987, while still working in these roles, Bergeron added People Are Talking to his duties. He replaced outgoing host Buzz Luttrell on the early afternoon talk show, where he gained even more popularity. While Ron Cantera took over as host of 4 Today (until its cancellation in 1988), Bergeron remained lottery host until drawings moved to WNEV-TV in August 1987. Bergeron additionally served as the original host of WBZ's weekend morning teenage discussion series Rap-Around from 1987 to 1989.

By the early 1990s, Bergeron was seen as a solid figure in Boston television, and WBZ continued to capitalize on his talents by featuring him on WBZ Radio. It was there he had an early-morning radio show called The Tom Bergeron Show. When People Are Talking ended a successful 13-year run in June 1993, Bergeron remained on WBZ-TV as commentator and lifestyle reporter for the station's expanded hour-long noon newscast. In early 1994, Bergeron briefly surfaced as a morning host on Boston's soft-rock station WMJX ("Magic 106.7"), which was only a short commute to WBZ's studios for his work on the noon news.

Bergeron credits a portion of his success as a television personality to his over 35 year regular practice of Transcendental Meditation.

National television work

In July 2001, he became the new host of the ABC series America's Funniest Home Videos. In 2005, he began hosting the reality series Dancing with the Stars, also on ABC.

Bergeron's final episode of America's Funniest Home Videos aired May 17, 2015. He was replaced by Alfonso Ribeiro.

External links

• Tom Bergeron at IMDb
• Tom Bergeron at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television