Television
In June 1994, Bergeron left WBZ when he was hired by the new FX cable network. He had been selected to co-host a morning talk show for them, called Breakfast Time, which was his first network television exposure. Hosting with Laurie Hibberd, the show became quite successful on the upstart cable network, prompting the Fox Broadcasting Company to pick it up two years later. At the time, the cable system in his hometown of Haverhill didn't carry FX, leading to a long-running and ultimately failed public campaign to get them to pick up the channel or at the very least to locally syndicate the program. In September 1996, the program moved to Fox and became Fox After Breakfast, since it aired later in the morning than the other network's morning programs. Bergeron and Hibberd continued with the show for one year on Fox; the show was renewed in 1997, but revamped. With new host Vicki Lawrence, a new set and modified format, it became The Vicki Lawrence Show.
Bergeron was promptly signed to a contract with ABC News as guest host to Good Morning America. After Charles Gibson left the show, Bergeron was seriously considered as a permanent replacement, but that job went to Kevin Newman.
Beginning in 1998, he became the host of Hollywood Squares. He was nominated for 5 Emmys and in 2000, he won his first of two Emmy Awards. After Hollywood Squares ended its six-year-run in 2004, he continued hosting America's Funniest Home Videos, which he started hosting in 2001, and he is also credited as the show's senior producer. In later years, Bergeron appeared twice on Star Trek: Enterprise as an alien trader named D'Marr and as a Coridan Ambassador. He also appeared in an episode of The Nanny in 1998. In 2005, he began hosting the ABC reality series Dancing With the Stars, for ABC, where he had two former co-hostesses (Lisa Canning and Samantha Harris) before Brooke Burke, the winner of season 7, took over the job. The show, modeled on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, proved to be a hit, and has now aired in over 90 countries in its various formats. His sharp sense of humor and good banter with the judges and cast members of Dancing With the Stars have helped to make him a big star again, so much so that in June 2010 ABC invited him back to his daytime roots for one day only as special guest moderator of "The View".
In 2005, Bergeron was a co-host on the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, and in 2006 he was elected national vice president of the association.
In November 2009, Bergeron celebrated AFHV's 20th anniversary with its first host Bob Saget. In 2010, he appeared in Castle. In 2011, he made a cameo in an episode of Tosh.0 as host of Dancing with the Internet Stars, a parody of Dancing with the Stars.
In March 2011, Bergeron was one of the guest presenters to help promote KSBW's second digital channel, "Central Coast ABC". with the launch date of that channel set for April 2011.
In 2012, Bergeron was selected to host A Capitol Fourth, an annual Independence Day concert shown on PBS.
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Famous quotes containing the word television:
“Photographs may be more memorable than moving images because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow. Television is a stream of underselected images, each of which cancels its predecessor. Each still photograph is a privileged moment, turned into a slim object that one can keep and look at again.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)
“Laughter on American television has taken the place of the chorus in Greek tragedy.... In other countries, the business of laughing is left to the viewers. Here, their laughter is put on the screen, integrated into the show. It is the screen that is laughing and having a good time. You are simply left alone with your consternation.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)