Emmy Award Winner TOM BERGERON, STAR OF ABC’S AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS AND HOLLYWOOD SQUARES TO HOST MISS AMERICA 

Miss America Telecast to Air September 20 on ABC-TV 

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – July 23, 2003 – Emmy Award-winner Tom Bergeron, star of ABC Television’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” will host the live telecast of “Miss America” from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 (8:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. 

This is the first time the 2000 Emmy Award-winner for Outstanding Game Show Host of “Hollywood Squares” and versatile television talk show host will preside over the telecast, which is the third-longest running live entertainment special in television history. This glamorous, suspense-filled night will feature some of America’s most intelligent, talented and beautiful young women competing for the coveted title now held by Erika Harold of Urbana, Illinois. 

Bergeron, who will return as host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” this fall for his fourth season, began his career in the early ‘70s as a disc jockey for his Haverhill, Massachusetts, hometown radio station, WHAV. He was the youngest DJ in the state. At the same time, he was an editorial cartoonist for several local newspapers, including the Haverhill Gazette and Haverhill Independent. 

In 1980 Bergeron created and hosted “The Tom Bergeron Show,” a highly rated late-night comedy talk program. He joined Boston’s WBZ-TV in 1982 as host of several of the station’s programs, including “4 Today” and two Emmy Award-winning shows for children -- “Super Kids” and “Rap Around.” By 1987 he was the anchor of WBZ-TV’s Emmy Award-winning “People Are Talking,” Boston’s top-rated daily show. In 1993 Bergeron was tapped to host “Breakfast Time” for FX and, after much critical success, “Breakfast Time” made a smooth transition from cable to network television by re-launching on Fox in 1996 as “Fox After Breakfast.” 

The father of two daughters, Bergeron has been the host of “Hollywood Squares” since 1998 and received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host. He has also lent his more than 20 years of broadcasting experience to ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where he has served as a fill-in anchor, and also substituted for Bryant Gumbel on CBS’ “The Early Show.” 

ABC was the original home of the “Miss America” telecast from 1954 to 1956. The 1954 ABC’s inaugural telecast of “Miss America” captured the crowning of Lee Meriwether. “Miss America” returned to ABC in 1997.