Thomas Raymond Bergeron (born May 6, 1955) is an American television personality, comedian, and game show host, best known for hosting ''Breakfast Time'' from 1994 to 1997, ''
Hollywood Squares'' from 1998 to 2004, ''
America's Funniest Home Videos'' from 2001 to 2015, and ''
Dancing with the Stars'' from 2005 to 2019 as well as being an anchor on ''
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
'' from 1997 to 1998 and a cohost on the
60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008.
Early life and career
Bergeron was born in
Haverhill, Massachusetts, the son of Adrian Raymond "Ray" Bergeron Jr. (1934–2015) and Mary Catherine “Kay” Costello (1933–2016). Bergeron is of
French Canadian
French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
and
Irish descent. While being interviewed on the
Howard Stern Show, Bergeron revealed when he was 17 years old he interviewed
Larry Fine
Louis Feinberg (October 4, 1902 – January 24, 1975), better known by his stage name Larry Fine, was an American actor, comedian and musician. He is best known as a member of the comedy act the Three Stooges and was often called "The Middle St ...
and
Moe Howard of the
Three Stooges after contacting the nursing home Larry was living in.
His first job in broadcasting was as a
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...
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
New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
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'' (1982–1987), and hosting brief informational and show preview segments known as ''4 Today'', every 30 minutes during WBZ's daytime lineup (1983–1987). 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 more than 35 years of regularly practicing
Transcendental Meditation. He discussed his meditation practice on ''10 Percent Happier with Dan Harris'' and ''The Fifth Dimension: A Mindfulness Podcast''.
National television work
From 1994 to 1997, Bergeron co-hosted the morning show ''Breakfast Time'' on
FX and later re-titled ''Fox After Breakfast'' when the show moved to the
Fox Network.
In 1997, Bergeron joined
ABC, where he served as a guest host for ''
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
''.
Bergeron was the host of ''
Hollywood Squares'' from 1998 to 2004, a role for which he won a
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...
for
Outstanding Game Show Host in 2000.
In February 2001, he became the new host of the
ABC series ''
America's Funniest Home Videos''. In March 2014, Bergeron announced on Twitter that he would not be hosting ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' after season 25. Bergeron's final episode of ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' aired May 17, 2015. He was replaced by
Alfonso Ribeiro.
In June 2005, he began hosting the reality series ''
Dancing with the Stars'', also on ABC. For his work on ''Dancing with the Stars'', he received nine
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...
nominations for
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program, winning the award once in
2012
2012 was designated as:
*International Year of Cooperatives
*International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
Events January
*January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins.
* January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
. On July 13, 2020, Bergeron announced he had been let go from the series ahead of its 29th season in a message posted on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
.
On September 20, 2008, Bergeron co-hosted the
60th Primetime Emmy Awards alongside
Heidi Klum,
Jeff Probst
Jeffrey Lee Probst (; born November 4, 1961) is an American television presenter and producer and young adult fiction writer. He is best known as the Emmy Awards, Emmy Award–winning host of the American version of the reality television show ' ...
,
Ryan Seacrest, and
Howie Mandel. The five were selected to host in recognition of their nominations in the inaugural category of Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program.
In 2020, Bergeron competed in the
third season of ''
The Masked Singer'' as "Taco".
Personal life
Bergeron has been married to Lois since 1982 and has two daughters.
In 2009, Bergeron published his autobiography ''I'm Hosting as Fast as I Can!: Zen and the Art of Staying Sane in Hollywood''.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergeron, Tom
1955 births
Living people
American game show hosts
American people of French-Canadian descent
American people of Irish descent
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host winners
Massachusetts Democrats
People from Belmont, Massachusetts
People from Haverhill, Massachusetts
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Television anchors from Boston
Beauty pageant hosts
American male comedians
Comedians from Massachusetts