Tom Bergeron Leaving America's Funniest Home Videos

[Matt Ottinger]

The two remarkable takeaways from this story:

1) With fifteen seasons under his belt, Bergeron far outpaced Bob Saget as the franchise's longest-running host.
2) America's Funniest Home Videos is still on the air.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tom-bergeron-depart-americas-funniest-687214?mobile_redirect=false

[DoItRockapella]

According to the linked article, Tom's also "pitching a live spin-off to ABC". How that would work is beyond me.

2) America's Funniest Home Videos is still on the air.

I can't really believe it either. When I was a kid in the 90s, I used to wonder why anybody would be holding a camcorder frequently enough to get these things on tape; in 2014, I'm more wondering how this show can possibly coexist with YouTube.

[Steve Gavazzi]

in 2014, I'm more wondering how this show can possibly coexist with YouTube.

AFV finds the videos for you?

(Then again, once you've looked up the first one, so does YouTube.)

[Fedya]

The two remarkable takeaways from this story:

2) America's Funniest Home Videos is still on the air.

Presumably it makes a profit.  I'd bet it's ridiculously cheap to produce compared to any other half-hour in prime time.

What I find remarkable is that anybody would sign a release to be on Cops.

[RobertSearcy]

What I find remarkable is that anybody would sign a release to be on Cops.

That or Jail/Inside American Jail/Las Vegas Jailhouse/whatever alternate name they'll come up with for the same exact episodes....same goes for the cheater on Cheaters.

(Don't get me wrong....I like watching the above shows along with Cops, but I do wonder why most if not all the people on those shows sign releases.)

I wonder how expensive AFV is to produce compared to other shows....

[Dbacksfan12]

The two remarkable takeaways from this story:

2) America's Funniest Home Videos is still on the air.

Presumably it makes a profit.  I'd bet it's ridiculously cheap to produce compared to any other half-hour in prime time.

What I find remarkable is that anybody would sign a release to be on Cops.

I thought I recalled reading at some point that potential convicts were given a small stipend which helped defray some of their legal costs.  I may also be confusing it with some of the courtroom shows however.

[Don Howard]

To do what? Movies? Jim Carrey will crush him.

[Matt Ottinger]

I wonder how expensive AFV is to produce compared to other shows....

I don't remember the specific numbers, but a story in The Hollywood Reporter a few years ago broke down just how preposterously cheap this show was to make.  Bergeron got paid a million dollars a year, and after that the expenses were tiny.  Microscopic, even.

[TLEberle]

I don't remember the specific numbers, but a story in The Hollywood Reporter a few years ago broke down just how preposterously cheap this show was to make.  Bergeron got paid a million dollars a year, and after that the expenses were tiny.  Microscopic, even.

The viewers create the content, so I would imagine storing the tapes (and now the server space), plus the staff would be about it.

[CarbonCpy]

There was a Wired article from 2011 that goes into the details behind the show, naturally covering things like the show's pretty cheap production costs and the comparisons between sites like failblog and viral videos, but it goes into more of the nitty-gritty details like how the show has adapted in the age of viral videos:

The rise of rampant video sharing hasn’t been all bad for AFV. In fact, it has helped the show in at least one major way: There are now simply more videos to choose from. After a few low years when submissions dropped to a trickle, these days the show is steadily getting about 2,000 clips a week. And in addition to direct submissions, producers also occasionally comb the web for breaking hits. The challenge, of course, is that by the time a great clip gets spotted by AFV, it may be too well-known. To deal with this, the producers have come up with their own YouTube barometer: If a video is starting to gain traction but has yet to hit 50,000 views, AFV will ask the uploader to take it off the web (or at least set it to private) and submit it to the show. Once it breaks the 50,000-view mark, however, Di Bona has little use for it.

Relevant quote:

“In my house, we call this show ‘the annuity.’”