Tom Bergeron Exiting 'America's Funniest Home Videos'

Credit: ABC

So here's an interesting story: America's Funniest Home Videos is apparently still on the air, going by AFV now (presumably because everybody shoots things digitally on their phone or camera, thus getting rid of the whole "bulky video tape" form of home movie-making). Also intriguing: apparently Emmy winner Tom Bergeron is hosting it, and has been for some time now.

Except, that won't be the case for much longer. Bergeron has announced that he will be leaving the show after the upcoming 25th season, which is an announcement less shocking due to Bergeron's departure, and more from the realization that this show has been on the air for 25 years.

"I'm embracing change this month,” he explain in an emailed statement to Vulture. “I’ve decided that, after 15 wonderful seasons as host of AFV, next year, the show's 25th anniversary(!!), will be my last.”

Bergeron continues, “As Doctor Who fans know, every so often a regeneration is a good thing.”

But the biggest surprise of all is not that Bergeron, who also co-hosts Dancing With the Stars, is leaving, or that the show has been on the air for close to three decades now. No, the biggest surprise is that AFV remains a solid ratings performer for ABC. Despite pretty much zero promotion and a dead-end, 7 p.m Sunday slot, along with the fact that anyone could go on YouTube and find videos at least as funny as anything AFV might serve up, the show still brings in an average of 6.6 million viewers each week for a solid 1.4 rating among viewers under 50. That's more than any of NBC's Thursday night comedies! Hell, that's better than The X Factor USA was doing towards the end.

So what now? Do we get Bob Saget back? Or do we replace Bergeron with someone new? In lieu of an X Factor gig, I think Mario Lopez is free.

Via: Vulture