America's Funniest Home Videos


America's Funniest Home Videos, also called America's Funniest Videos, is an American video clip television series on ABC, based on a recurring segment on the Japanese variety show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan. The show features humorous home videos that are submitted by viewers. The most common videos feature unintentional physical comedy, pets or children and some staged pranks.
Originally airing as a special in 1989, it debuted as a regular weekly series in January 1990. The show was originally hosted by comedian Bob Saget for the 1989 special and the first eight seasons of the series incarnation. After Saget stepped down as host in 1997, John Fugelsang and Daisy Fuentes took over as co-hosts for its ninth and tenth seasons. After two years of being shown as occasional specials, ABC brought the series back on Friday nights in 2001 with Tom Bergeron taking over hosting duties; Bergeron is the longest-running host in the show's history to date, staying on AFV for fifteen seasons until he stepped down in 2015. Alfonso Ribeiro has hosted the program since 2015.
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Premise

America's Funniest Home Videos is based on the 1986–1992 Tokyo Broadcasting System variety program Kato-chan Ken-chan Gokigen TV, which featured a segment in which viewers were invited to send in video clips from their home movies; ABC, which holds a 50% ownership share in the program, pays a royalty fee to TBS Holdings, Inc. for the use of the format. Contestants can submit their videos by uploading them on the show's official website, AFV.com; through its iOS or Android apps; on the show's official Facebook fan page; or by sending them via mail to a Hollywood, California post-office box address. The majority of the video clips are short and organized according to topics mentioned in the host's monologues. Videos usually feature people and animals getting into humorous accidents or behaving amusingly on camera, while others include clever marriage proposals, people and animals displaying interesting talents, and practical jokes. As of 1989, the show's production process featured a group of screeners viewing the submitted tapes and grading them on a 1–10 scale based on how humorous they were. The videos graded the highest were sent to the show's producers, and then to Di Bona and another producer for final approval. Videos that feature staged accidents, people being seriously injured, the abuse of animals and children, or that otherwise do not meet ABC network standards and practices are generally not accepted for broadcast.
Every week, the producers choose three videos to compete for a prize, with the studio audience voting for the winner. The first-place winner is awarded a $20,000 cash prize, advancing to the season's semifinals and placed in the running for the $100,000 prize awarded during the middle and near the end of each season ; the runner-up receives $6,000 and the third-place video receives $4,000. Starting in Season 12, the winners of the $100,000 prize in the semifinals then advance to the finals and compete for a vacation prize package supplied by Disney Experiences, and the title of "America's Funniest Home Video". The program's studio segments are taped in front of a studio audience. Audience members are asked to dress in "business casual or nicer".
Show creator Vin Di Bona has produced three spin-off programs: America's Funniest People, World's Funniest Videos, and extension series America's Funniest Home Videos: Animal Edition. In 2019, Di Bona also created an attempt at an adult-oriented spinoff, Videos After Dark, which was not picked up as a series but aired on ABC as a two-episode special. Di Bona also created Show Me the Funny and That's Funny, two similar comedic home video series—both hosted by actor/comedian Rondell Sheridan, who succeeded original host Stephanie Miller on the former—that largely relied on repackaged clips from the video libraries of AFV and America's Funniest People. Several local television stations, even those not affiliated with ABC, also developed special funny home video segments in their newscasts during the early 1990s, and or local spinoffs, inspired by the series. As noted in the closing credits of each episode, most of the videos have been edited for length due to time constraints. In addition, according to the contest plugs, family members of employees of Vin Di Bona Productions, ABC, Inc., its corporate parent The Walt Disney Company and their related subsidiaries are ineligible for the show's contests and prizes.

History

Development

Series creator Vin Di Bona had previously developed a similar concept to AFV in Animal Crack-Ups, a celebrity game show that aired primarily as part of ABC's Saturday morning lineup and was based on the Japanese series Wakuwaku Dōbutsu Land, a game in which contestants answered questions related to funny video clips involving animals. Di Bona—who decided to form his eponymous production company following his stint as a line producer on the first season of the ABC action-adventure series MacGyver—partnered with former CBS News executive Joe Bellon, whose distribution company, Bellon Enterprises, at the time had been struggling in its efforts to sell the international rights to programming concepts—like Wakuwaku—based on shows originally aired by the Tokyo Broadcasting System. The two soon developed a pitch for an American version of Wakuwaku, using the licensed animal footage from the program, eventually selling it to ABC.
In the spring of 1989, while Di Bona and his then-wife, Gina, attended the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, the latter passed a booth for a distributor showcasing a segment from the TBS variety program Kato-chan Ken-chan Gokigen TV, in which hosts Ken Shimura and Cha Kato presented and provided comedic narration over a package of funny caught-on-tape moments sent in by viewers; at the end of each show, audience members voted for their favorite clip among those featured. At Gina's insistence, Di Bona contacted TBS about licensing the rights to the concept.
Di Bona, with Bellon's assistance in acquiring the clips from TBS, put together a presentation reel featuring footage from the Gokigen TV home video segment; ABC executives, immediately after seeing the reel, decided to place an order for the concept that would become America's Funniest Home Videos. However, the network intended for it to be a one-off special, unsure that a program showing other people's home movies would work as a weekly series. Di Bona enlisted most of the staff from Animal Crack-Ups—including among others, writer Todd Thicke, producer Steve Paskay, creative consultant Gina Di Bona, coordinating producers Joe and Greg Bellon, and director Ron de Moraes—to work on the pilot special. Di Bona also borrowed the comedic narration style used in Gokigen TV and Wakuwaku, having the host provide voices to both humans and animals featured in the clips as well as exaggerated observational humor.
In the run-up to the special's broadcast, during the fall of 1989, Vin Di Bona Productions took out ads in national magazines asking people to send in their home videos featuring funny or amazing moments. Around 1,800 tapes were submitted for inclusion in the pilot special.
John Ritter was Vin Di Bona's first choice to host the program, but was unavailable. Los Angeles sports reporter Fred Roggin was also approached to host, but due to his contract negotiations with NBC, he was unable to accept. Di Bona then approached actor/comedian Bob Saget, whom he remembered from the latter's May 1989 guest appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, impressed by his comedic timing and storytelling during the interview; however, Di Bona was unaware of Saget's existing ABC series role until he was informed by network executives when pitching Saget as host. Saget was initially reluctant to accept, but Di Bona ultimately convinced him to agree to do the gig, believing that it would showcase Saget's general comedic talent, and make him known for that than merely for his role as the cleanliness-obsessed "dorky dad" on Full House.

1989–1997: Bob Saget

The show debuted on November 26, 1989, as an hour-long special, produced by Di Bona and Steve Paskay, with Saget as host. Actress Kellie Martin, then the star of fellow ABC series Life Goes On, which would serve as the lead-in program to AFHV for the latter show's first four seasons, and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, served as a special guest and assisted Saget in hosting two segments during the special, including the announcement of the three grand prize finalists. Married couple Helen and Bill Wholf of Thompson, Ohio were awarded the show's first grand prize for a clip titled "The Dishwasher Lady," in which Bill discovers Helen had gotten herself stuck inside their dishwasher after her hair became entangled in the machine's spray arm while attempting to retrieve a dropped utensil. The clip, the Panasonic OmniMovie HQ 1FX8-CCD camcorder that Bill Wholf used to record the video, and other artifacts from the series—including an annotated pilot script, an audience voting machine, and a presentation reel created to pitch the proposed special to ABC executives—were donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in 2008.
America's Funniest Home Videos became an unexpected hit for ABC: the special's initial broadcast was watched by 32.8 million viewers, roughly double the network's average viewership in the Sunday 8:00 p.m. ET timeslot at the time. Ratings increased over the course of the show, with much of it coming from viewers in the Northeastern and Midwestern U.S. snowed in by a significant blizzard that hit those regions a few days earlier around the Thanksgiving holiday. Impressed by the viewer response to the special, ABC decided to turn it into a weekly prime time series and ordered 10 additional half-hour episodes ; it debuted as a regular series on January 14, 1990, serving as a replacement for the recently cancelled fantasy sitcom Free Spirit. Besides acting as host, Saget also served as a member of its writing staff, alongside Todd Thicke and Bob Arnott.
Ernie Anderson, the longtime voice of ABC, was the program's original announcer, although Charlie O'Donnell, then known mainly as the announcer for Wheel of Fortune, occasionally substituted for him during some Season 1 episodes. Anderson also made an on-camera cameo appearance during the third season's first grand prize episode, originally aired on November 17, 1991. He was replaced in 1995 by radio and television actor Gary Owens, who remained in that role until Saget's departure, although Anderson would briefly return via archived recordings. The show's theme song, "The Funny Things You Do", was performed by co-songwriter Jill Colucci for most of the Saget run; this was replaced midway through Season 8 by a funk rock duet rendition by Peter Hix and Terry Wood. The set used throughout the Saget era was an open floorplan living room design, with two large video screens on either side of the main set.
Numerous comedy skits were performed on the set during Saget's tenure as host of AFHV. The opening host segment of each episode was tied in with a skit featured in-between the transition from the opening title sequence and Saget's introduction. This usually consisted of several actors in a fake room pretending to get excited to watch the show. Sometimes, Saget would visit, attempt to interact with, and pretend to watch the show with the actors. These opening gags were scrapped after the fifth season. In Season 5, the show introduced an animated sidekick named "Stretchy McGillicuddy", who regularly teased Saget and did other bizarre things; one episode featured Stretchy—who often uttered the catchphrase, "Don't get a little touchy, Bob, I'm just a little stretchy!", in his appearances—appearing on the two large set monitors and Bob had to turn him off with a remote. Saget ended each episode with the tagline, "Keep those cameras safely rolling", followed by a message to his wife who was implied to be watching the show at home.
The success of AFHV—which regularly placed in the Nielsen Top 5 ratings during its first season, and finished in fifth place among all network programs for the 1989–90 season—quickly led ABC to order a pilot for a spin-off: America's Funniest... Part II aired on May 13, 1990 as a half-hour special that was hosted by Saget's Full House co-star, Dave Coulier ; as was the case with AFHV following its debut special, ABC immediately picked up America's Funniest... Part II as a weekly series for its 1990–91 fall schedule. Retitled America's Funniest People, it debuted as a series on September 9, 1990, with actress/producer Arleen Sorkin joining Coulier as co-host. The series focused on videos featuring people intentionally trying to be funny by doing celebrity impressions, committing pranks, and performing short amateur comedy routines, among other things.
For its first four seasons, America's Funniest Home Videos aired on Sunday nights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time; when the spin-off premiered in September 1990, AFHV—then entering its second season—was paired with America's Funniest People to form an hour-long home video block. Beginning with their respective fifth and fourth seasons in September 1993, ABC made America's Funniest Home Videos and America's Funniest People the lead-off programs of its Sunday prime time lineup, moving them both an hour earlier to replace Life Goes On, which ended its four-season run that May; this also gave both shows a formidable rival in 60 Minutes, which had regularly beaten its 7:00 competitors in the ratings since CBS permanently moved the newsmagazine to Sundays in 1975. In May 1994, ABC canceled America's Funniest People after four seasons due to declining ratings, and decided to put the freshman sitcom On Our Own in its former timeslot for the 1994–95 fall schedule; after On Our Own was put on hiatus that December following an initial run of 13 episodes, the network chose to expand America's Funniest Home Videos to one hour with back-to-back episodes, with that week's new episode occupying the first half-hour, followed by a repeat from a previous season to fill the remaining time.
On February 1, 1996, ABC debuted another spin-off of AFHV, World's Funniest Videos; taped at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, this series—like America's Funniest People—was also hosted by Coulier, alongside actress Eva LaRue. Paired with a weekly version of the popular Before They Were Stars specials on Thursday nights, World's Funniest Videos focused on funny and amazing home videos from around the world. However, due to low ratings, ABC put the series on hiatus a few weeks after its debut, before cancelling it outright after only one season and burning off the remaining episodes that summer. For Saget's final season on AFHV, two new episodes aired back-to-back for several weeks over the course of the season, which increased the episode order that year to 30.
Saget himself soon grew tired of the repetitive format and was eager to pursue other projects as a comedian, actor and director. Producer Di Bona held him to his contract, resulting in a frustrated Saget listlessly going through the motions, constantly getting out of character and making pointed remarks on the air during his last two seasons. Saget's contract expired in May 1997 and he decided to leave the show afterward. However, according to Di Bona, the producers felt a change was needed for AFV as a result of ABC going through a change of leadership. His former Full House castmates—except for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen—appeared for the penultimate episode of Season 8, preceding Saget's final episode as host, the season-ending $100,000 grand prize episode.
Saget returned to America's Funniest Home Videos on three different occasions—first, to co-host a 20th anniversary special edition episode alongside then-host Tom Bergeron, which aired on November 29, 2009 ; a cameo appearance at the end of Bergeron's final episode on May 17, 2015, where he was driving a golf cart and to co-host a 30th anniversary documentary special alongside Bergeron and current host Ribeiro, which aired on December 8, 2019.

1997–1999: John Fugelsang & Daisy Fuentes

After Saget's departure from the series, ABC sidelined America's Funniest Home Videos from the network's 1997–98 fall schedule; in the late fall of 1997, ABC decided to put the series on its Monday lineup as a replacement for the TV adaptation of Timecop, which had been pulled from the schedule after five episodes due to persistently poor viewership. The first two episodes of the ninth season aired as a "sneak peek" on November 21, 1997, as part of the TGIF lineup, before the remainder of the season began airing regularly in the show's new Monday slot on January 5, 1998. This season featured new hosts, an overhauled look, and a new ska instrumental rendition of the "Funny Things You Do" theme song composed by Dan Slider. The show began to be alternately called AFV at this point, with references to the abbreviated name being used in most on-air parlance going forward.
Comedian John Fugelsang and model-turned-television personality Daisy Fuentes took over as co-hosts of the show. Three new writers—among them, Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni J. Elvis Weinstein and Trace Beaulieu—joined holdover scribe Thicke on the writing staff, replacing Saget and Arnott. Like Saget had done during his run in certain videos within clip packages, Fugelsang and Fuentes humorously narrated the clips shown. Owens was succeeded by an unknown announcer, who was subsequently replaced for the tenth season by voice actor Jess Harnell, who still holds this position to this day. With ABC reserving the Sunday 7:00 p.m. ET slot for The Wonderful World of Disney beginning that season, the show changed timeslots several times over the next two seasons: after leading off ABC's Monday night lineup for Season 9, the network moved AFV to Saturday nights at the start of Season 10 ; the show was later moved to Thursday nights in March 1999, opposite the first hour of NBC's "Must See TV" comedy lineup and airing directly against the top-rated Friends. Alongside the 26 episodes picked up for Season 9, ten other episodes were produced with no contest winners and recycled clips from Season 8 with new John/Daisy voiceovers. They would sporadically air paired with other episodes back-to-back; the last to air premiered alongside the Season 10 premiere in October 1998. The ten episodes have never aired in reruns in syndication, and only two of the ten episodes are known to have rerun on ABC.
Ratings for the show suffered during this period, due to both less-than-satisfactory reception to the new hosts and changes to the show's format as well as the timeslot changes. Both Fuentes and Fugelsang left the show after two seasons in 1999. Their last original new episode—which aired on August 28, after a four-month delay —was taped at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California. Until the 2019 special AFV: America... This Is You!, showcasing footage from the tenures of the other AFV hosts, the only honorable mention of Fugelsang and Fuentes and segments showcasing their run was the two-part 300th episode AFV special in November 2003. While Fugelsang has not been seen in new recent never-before-seen footage on the road or in-studio on AFV since his and Fuentes' departure, Fuentes was featured in interview segments discussing their time on the show for America... This Is You!, while both Fugelsang and Fuentes conducted further interviews for the America... This Is You! podcast.

1999–2000: Specials

In May 1999, ABC announced that it would discontinue America's Funniest Home Videos as a regular weekly series after its tenth season, but allowed the format to continue as a series of thematic specials hosted by various personalities, including ABC sitcom stars D. L. Hughley and Richard Kind, and future AFV host Tom Bergeron. Concurrently, Vin di Bona Productions produced a season intended for selected international markets, with Kerri and Mike Kasem as hosts. The show moved to a much smaller soundstage on a set that featured various video screens and monitors placed on shelves.
A home video-exclusive special, America's Funniest Home Videos: Deluxe Uncensored, was released on VHS and DVD in July 1999; hosted by Steve Carell and taped on the set used for the ninth and tenth seasons of the original series run, it featured somewhat more risqué content than that allowed on the television broadcasts. A sports-themed special, AFV: The Sports Edition, hosted by ESPN anchor Stuart Scott, would later air on ABC in 2006 and was rebroadcast every New Year's Day along with occasional broadcasts before NBA playoff games tip-off until 2008. These specials were not taped in front of a live studio audience, with pre-recorded applause and laugh tracks were used during commercial bumpers and just before, during, and after video packages being used instead.

2001–2015: Tom Bergeron

In October 2000, ABC announced that America's Funniest Home Videos would return as a regular weekly series, ordering an eleventh season consisting of 13 episodes. On February 3, 2001, the show returned in its third format, this time with Bergeron serving as host. Episodes were expanded to a full hour, and aired on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET; however, it went on hiatus for two months during the 2001-02 season due in part to the September 11 attacks and also because of ABC's decision to fill the Friday lineup with specials and a new, but short-lived lineup of reality and drama series ; AFV returned to the schedule in December 2001, and began its twelfth season as a midseason replacement in February 2002. A new set was introduced—featuring a pillar with several monitors—when Bergeron's first season began.
With ABC moving The Wonderful World of Disney to Saturdays for the 2003-04 season, in September 2003, the show returned to its former Sunday 7:00 p.m. Eastern timeslot, still in its hour-long format. Unlike Saget, who provided voice-overs to the clips, Bergeron humorously narrated them, though he did lend comedic voiceovers similar to Saget's style to some clips from time to time during the eleventh season. Changes to the set for that season included the replacement of the round video wall by a curved video wall, the pillars being recolored to blue, the addition of curved light borders hanging through the set, and lights under the center stage with return of the abbreviated "AFV" logo.
For Season 18, the series began allowing viewers to upload their video submissions online at ABC.com; it would later direct viewers to submit their videos to a new standalone website, AFV.com, beginning with Season 23, in addition to the existing practice of submitting videos via standard mail. In Season 22, AFV released an iOS app on the App Store, allowing Apple mobile device users to record and directly upload videos for submission to the show; a version for Android devices was released the following season.
The final six seasons of Bergeron's run as host fell during two major milestones in the series' history. In 2009, in commemoration of its 20th season, the show started its "Funny Since 1989" campaign and broadcast a special 20th anniversary episode on November 29, featuring a guest appearance by Saget in his return to AFV for the first time since his 1997 departure. Both Saget and Bergeron ended that episode with a pinata party skit and a nod to the Star Wars lightsaber fight scenes during the closing credits, with the design of the pinatas resembling the two hosts.
On March 7, 2014, Bergeron announced on his Twitter account that he would step down as host of AFV at the conclusion of its 25th season. The series commemorated its silver anniversary for its 2014–15 season, and broadcast a 25th Anniversary Celebrity Celebration special on February 15, 2015, in which Bergeron and ABC sitcom stars Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross and Cristela Alonzo recounted memorable videos from the show's history, with one of three nominees from the pool being awarded a Disney Cruise Line vacation grand prize. Bergeron's penultimate episode aired on May 10, 2015, incorporating periodic montages of funny home videos that defined the show's then-25-year run. His final episode as host, which was also the 25th season finale, aired the following week on May 17; taped on-location at Disneyland for that season's edition of the annual "Grand Prize Spectacular", AFVs 25th anniversary and the Disneyland Resort's 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration featured an auto-tuned montage of clips and outtakes from Bergeron's run as host and closed with him being escorted after walking off the outdoor stage near Sleeping Beauty Castle following the grand prize presentation on a golf cart driven by Saget in a special cameo appearance.
Bergeron would later make an in-studio guest appearance alongside his successor, Alfonso Ribeiro, in the Season 26 "Grand Prize Spectacular" finale, in which he played the show's final audience participation game segment and won an Ribiero AFV pillow and socks. He was featured alongside fellow hosts Ribeiro, Saget and Fuentes in the 2019 special AFV: America...This Is You!.

2015–present: Alfonso Ribeiro

On May 19, 2015, two days after Bergeron's final episode aired, ABC announced that Alfonso Ribeiro would take over as host of America's Funniest Home Videos starting with its 26th season. Bergeron formally introduced Ribeiro's new role as host during the latter's guest performance on the 20th season finale of Dancing with the Stars. Prior to becoming host, Ribeiro appeared on the show's March 8, 2015 episode playing an audience participation game alongside then-host Bergeron.
Ribeiro continued Bergeron's concept of humorously narrating clips, sometimes making extensive use of rhymes in his voiceovers. While some of the Bergeron-era clip segments, the in-studio audience and background parts of the Bergeron-era set props remained intact and/or continued into the first five years of Ribeiro's hosting tenure, the stage was updated to feature a metal floor layout and stairway connected to a puzzle-style cube screen composed of smaller sized flat-panel TV screens, while new segments were incorporated into the show. Audience participation games introduced during the Bergeron era were eliminated for the 27th season. Additional set props such as arrow-styled flat-panel monitors and lit color-changing tables were added to the AFV set in 2019.
For its 28th season, AFV was displaced from its longtime 7:00 p.m. ET slot to make room for the reality competition series The Toy Box, resulting in the former being moved to 8:00 p.m. ET. Periodically over the course of three months, the show employed a "repeat/new" episode scheduling format similar to that employed during the later Saget and Fugelsang/Fuentes eras, with new episodes in the 7:00 p.m. hour, before permanently returning to the earlier slot on February 11, 2018. On October 29, 2018, ABC renewed AFV for two more seasons, extending the series for its 30th and 31st seasons. On December 8, 2019, ABC broadcast AFV: America, This is You!, a retrospective documentary commemorating AFVs 30th anniversary; the special featured appearances by creator/executive producer Vin di Bona and four of the five hosts—Ribeiro, Saget, Fuentes and Bergeron—and chronicled the show's development and pop culture status.
Production was suspended before the completion of the 30th season due to the COVID-19 pandemic; in lieu of its standard "grand prize" season finale format, a quarantine themed special, AFV@Home, aired on May 17, 2020; similar in concept to CBS's AFV-styled The Greatest AtHome Videos and incorporating hosted segments recorded at Ribeiro's Los Angeles home, the special featured humorous videos submitted to the program and culled from various social media platforms that were filmed mainly during stay-at-home isolation. The series returned to the studio for its 31st season, however, studio segments utilized a virtual audience—a concept first used for the last three episodes of season 30 prior to the in-studio production shutdown—to comply with federal social distancing guidelines, consisting of audience members appearing and interviews with the grand prize nominees being conducted via videotelephony on the various set monitors. On June 11, 2021, the fourth offshoot of the franchise, America's Funniest Home Videos: Animal Edition, premiered on Nat Geo Wild.
On January 9, 2022, during the 32nd season, original host Bob Saget was found dead in his room at a Ritz Carlton hotel near Williamsburg, Florida, a day after his stand-up comedy performance in nearby Orlando. The show paid tribute to him in the January 16, 2022 episode, which opened with a dedication to Saget by Alfonso Ribeiro, clips of Saget's tenure as host, and a brief discussion between him and Bergeron from the 2009 20th anniversary special, along with a standard pre-credits dedication; a tribute segment featuring clips from the Saget era was featured in subsequent episodes for the remainder of Season 32. After two years of using a virtual audience, the 33rd season returned to using an in-person studio audience, although nominees for the weekly grand prize contest would continue to appear via remote; the cash amounts for the videos selected for the weekly prize contest were also increased for the first time since AFVs series debut, doubling the first place prize to $20,000, second place to $6,000, and third place to $4,000. For Season 34, in addition to standard hour-long episodes in the show's regular timeslot, ABC aired edited half-hour versions of AFV episodes from the previous season on selected Sundays during the early fall to fill airtime following Wonderful World of Disney film presentations scheduled to end prior to the conclusion of the network's Sunday lineup.

Seasonal contests

$100,000 show

After every half of the season, the winners from the preceding episodes are brought back to participate in a contest to win an additional $100,000 in the semifinals. Two $100,000 contests air each season, though only one aired in the first and eleventh season. This format was used until 2002. Due to COVID-19, the 2020 season did not feature the traditional confetti, streamers, or live audience, and the winner was chosen by remote video chat.

Voting

  • 1989–1997 : ABC stations around the country are joined via satellite to cast their votes along with the Los Angeles studio audience.
  • 1997–present : Three formats have been used at various times:
  1. The Los Angeles studio audience votes to determine the winner.
  2. Viewers log onto the show's website to cast their votes.
  3. The show declares the winner by going to the Disney Parks and asking park-goers, as well inviting characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, to determine the $100,000 or the grand prize winning clip.

Grand Prize Spectacular

Beginning in Season 15, at the end of each season, the $100,000 winners from the preceding episodes are brought back to participate in a grand prize contest in the grand finals to determine which video earns the title of "America's Funniest Home Video", serving as the season finale. Starting in Season 17, it became known as the "Grand Prize Spectacular".

Grand prizes and winners

  • Season 15 : Dog Eat Dog: $100,000 and free vacations to all 11 Disney theme parks around the world
  • Season 16 : Dancing Machine: $100,000 and free vacations to 500+ places for 48 years
  • Season 17 : Plugged in Pug: Disney Dream Vacation
  • Season 18 : Not So Thrilled Ride: Adventures by Disney vacation to one of 10 places around the world
  • Season 19 : Birthday Blowout: $100,000 and free vacations to 500+ places for 50 years
  • Season 20 : The Great Escape: Trip to the Walt Disney World Resort with exclusive private time at Magic Kingdom Park
  • Season 21 : Crying Camera Kid: Disney Vacation of a Lifetime
  • Season 22 : Recovery Room Rambler: $100,000 Disney Vacation Club Membership for 40 years
  • Season 23 : Accidental Cup Crime: Disney Theme Parks and Adventures by Disney
  • Season 24 : Mail Slot Menace: Trip to Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida
  • Season 25 : No-No: Trip to Disneyland for 60 people
  • Season 26 : Donkey Delights Lil' Dude: Trip to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and the new Shanghai Disney Resort in China
  • Season 27 : Sedated and Elated: Collection of Disney Family Vacations
  • Season 28 : Sedated Saber Skirmish: Trip to the Walt Disney World Resort to experience The new Toy Story Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios
  • Season 29 : Blast with the Laughing Gas: Trip to the Aulani Disney Resort & Disneyland Paris
  • Season 30 : "Shallow" Show Stealer: Adventures by Disney river cruise
  • Season 31 : Rambling About Ambling: Disney Cruise Line vacation
  • Season 32 : Camera Confuses Canines: Trip to Walt Disney World for 50 people
  • Season 33 : The Running of the Bulldog: Disney Cruise Line vacation to the Bahamas for 4 people aboard the Disney Wish
  • Season 34 : Water Bottle Blunder: Trip to Disney's Riviera Resort, The Villas at Disneyland Resort or Aulani Disney Vacation Club Villas for 6 people
  • Season 35 : Better Dive Before Sis Arrives: Trip to Disneyland Resort for 8 people
  • Season 36 : TBA: Disney Cruise Line vacation to the Bahamas for 8 people aboard the Disney Wish

Other contests

  • Season 12 : "Battle of the Best": The Quad Squad: $25,000 and trip to Maui
  • Season 16 : Top 20 Countdown: The Quad Squad: $250,000 and The Funniest Video of All Time
  • Season 20 : Top 20 Videos that Changed the World: The Chainsaw Brothers: Disney Cruise Line vacation

Ratings

Season averages

America's Funniest Home Videos became an instant hit with audiences, with the original special in November 1989 averaging a 17.7 rating and 25 share, finishing at ninth place in the Nielsen ratings that week. When it debuted as a weekly Sunday night series in January 1990, the show averaged an 18.0 rating/27 share, finishing at 16th place. It placed within Nielsen's Top 5 highest-rated weekly series within weeks of its debut; by March 1990, AFHV became the No. 1 primetime series for a short time. AFHV finished the 1989–90 season in the Top 10 most watched shows, with an approximate average of 38 million viewers for each episode. AFHV finished the 2009–10 season in 55th place, with an approximate average of 7.52 million viewers, and finished in 69th in viewers 18–49, with 2.0/6. In 2016, a study by The New York Times of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "if you could pick a safe show that appeals to almost everyone, this might be it".

Broadcast format

Beginning with the show's 21st-season premiere on October 3, 2010, America's Funniest Home Videos began broadcasting in high definition. Many viewer-submitted videos were recorded in standard definition and were subsequently stretched horizontally to fit 16:9 screens. Since the 2012–13 season, videos recorded in 4:3 standard definition are carried in their original format with side pillarboxing. This continued to be the case for videos recorded on mobile devices recorded at a vertical angle. Since the conversion to HD, the series features advisories to viewers to tilt their mobile devices horizontally when recording in order for clip submissions to fit 16:9 screens without reformatting.
In 2014, all Tom Bergeron era episodes of the show originally produced in standard definition were remastered for widescreen and high definition broadcast compatibility, which involved cropping and stretching, with certain parts, such as the end credits switching to its original 4:3 aspect ratio after the first few seconds, and production logos, remaining in its original 4:3 aspect ratio. Video clips recorded in standard definition and airing since the show began broadcasting in high definition are also reformatted and stretched for widescreen compatibility. The same happened for the Bob Saget episodes in 2025, albeit done more tastefully. These new versions use the original 1995/1998 syndication prints as their basis. Despite that, several episodes are skipped.

Syndication

Repeats of the show began airing in broadcast syndication on September 11, 1995.
The initial off-network syndication package consisted of the entirety of seasons 1-5, and the first 12 episodes of season 6, and was distributed by MTM Enterprises. This package aired on various local channels, TBS from October 2, 1995 – 1998, and USA Network from 1998 to 2001. 20th Television then assumed syndication rights from their purchase of MTM Enterprises in 1997, and continued on with the initial package, and issuing a new package with the remainder of seasons 6 through 8, which most local stations ran into September 2001. Hallmark Channel notably aired both packages from August 5, 2001 to 2002, and various other channels carried the new package as well, but most stuck to the initial 5 1/2 season deal. Seasons 6–8 aired on ABC Family from January 2002 to October 2007, usually on Tuesday through Saturday mornings, and occasionally on Sunday nights if a movie was not shown, being the last to air said seasons. After 2001, Buena Vista Television began distributing the show, and with it came two revamped packages: seasons 1-5 and 6-8. The first 5 seasons aired among networks such as PAX TV every Monday through Thursday night from October 6, 2003 to April 11, 2005, and Nick at Nite for a short time from April 30 to October 12, 2007. The Saget era continued in local syndication for some time, finally ending up again on Hallmark Channel beginning on January 4, 2010. They were due to air all 8 seasons of the Saget run, but due to constantly changing timeslots, they never got past the tail end of season 5. The Saget era originally ceased its syndication run on February 25, 2010. In 2025, the Saget era returned to syndication on a FAST streaming channel called "AFV Classics," along with the Bergeron era. Internationally, all 8 seasons aired on DTV in Russia, TVB Pearl in Hong Kong, Omni 2 in Canada and the 5 season package aired on other Canadian networks including Sun TV, Omni British Columbia and TVTropolis.
The John and Daisy seasons aired on WGN America from 2006 to 2014. The guest specials from the 1999-2001 period are known to have been syndicated on WGN as well. Both eras were never offered in off-network syndication, and the foreign market Kasem season was not syndicated abroad. Internationally, all 3 eras aired on various networks, including the Kasem season on TVNorge, and the John/Daisy seasons on DTV in Russia.
The Tom Bergeron seasons began airing on both WGN and ABC Family in fall 2004, with seasons 15-19 gradually being added to syndication as they completed their original runs on ABC. WGN continuing its run until 2018, and ABC Family replacing the Saget run with the Bergeron run in October 2007, airing it until 2014 on Tuesday through Saturday mornings, and occasionally on Sunday nights if a movie was not shown.
Disney-ABC Domestic Television began offering seasons 11-19 in off-network syndication in 2009, airing on select Fox, MyNetworkTV, The CW, The CW Plus, and various independent stations until 2013. Various local stations replaced the Saget run with this run as well. In 2014, after the introduction of the widescreen remasters, a new packaged was introduced, with all 15 seasons of the Bergeron run. WGN aired seasons 11-19 from this package, TBS began reairing the show with seasons 18-23 and 25 from 2014–2017, and Up TV then picked up seasons 20-25 in 2016, with its last airing on December 31, 2019. Roar started airing this run on November 1, 2025 and began airing weekdays on November 3, starting with season 13. Around the same time, the Bergeron era began airing on a FAST streaming channel called "AFV Classics," along with the Saget era.
Internationally, hour long episodes in the USA and Canada are split into two half hour parts, with a new opener and closing taped for each part. All references to the show being an hour long are also edited out. This practice continues into the Ribeiro years. This era has aired among networks such as RTL Klub in Hungary, TVB Pearl in Hong Kong, DTV in Russia, and it currently airs on PRVA Plus in Serbia, along with the Ribeiro era. In Canada, seasons 11–25 aired on ABC Spark, CMT, DejaView, YTV and Yes TV in some capacity until 2022. Since September 16, 2023, reruns of seasons 11-18 are now being shown on GameTV.
The Alfonso Ribeiro seasons began airing on TeenNick on September 12, 2022, and finished airing in April 2023. The series returned to its schedule on November 20, 2023. The series returned to Nick at Nite on February 13, 2024, starting with season 31. The Ribeiro seasons began airing on Oprah Winfrey Network on September 29, 2025, with newer seasons than TeenNick. This era aired internationally on TVB Pearl, and currently airs on Prva Plus in Serbia, along with the Bergeron years.
Since September 2022, Disney+ has had a three season rotation of the show, with three newer seasons replacing the previous three every January and July.

Merchandise

VHS/DVD

ABC, Shout! Factory, and Slingshot Entertainment have released numerous compilation releases of America's Funniest Home Videos on VHS and DVD in Region 1.
TitleRelease dateStudioIncluded Episodes
The Best of America's Funniest Home VideosJune 27, 1991ABC Home Video
CBS-Fox Video		Clips from first season with new Bob wraparounds
America's Funniest PetsJanuary 1, 1992ABC Home Video
CBS-Fox Video		Clips from second season with new Bob wraparounds
America's Funniest FamiliesJanuary 1, 1992ABC Home Video
CBS-Fox Video		Clips from second season with new Bob wraparounds
America's Funniest Home Videos: Animal AnticsOctober 12, 1999Slingshot EntertainmentN/A
America's Funniest Home Videos: Deluxe UncensoredJune 6, 2000Slingshot EntertainmentN/A
America's Funniest Home Videos: Family FolliesJune 6, 2000Slingshot EntertainmentN/A
America's Funniest Home Videos: Volume 1 with Tom BergeronJuly 26, 2005Shout! FactorySeason 11 Episodes 2, 4-10, 12, 14-16, The 300th Episode Parts 1 & 2
America's Funniest Home Videos: Home for the HolidaysOctober 4, 2005Shout! FactorySeason 7 Episode 11, Season 8 Episode 14, Season 14 Episode 8
America's Funniest Home Videos: The Best of Kids & Animals 3-Disc Set
  • Disc 1 - AFV Looks at Kids & Animals
  • Disc 2 - All Animal Extravaganza
  • Disc 3 - Battle of the Best
December 27, 2005Shout! Factory
  • Disc 1 - AFHV Looks at Kids and Animals, Season 7 Episode 22
  • Disc 2 - All Animal Extravaganza, Season 14 Episode 22
  • Disc 3 - Battle of the Best
    • America's Funniest Home Videos: Nincompoops & BoneheadsJune 13, 2006Shout! FactorySalute to Boneheads ), Nincompoop-A-Rama
    America's Funniest Home Videos: Sports SpectacularSeptember 12, 2006Shout! FactoryAthletic Supporters, Season 12 Episode 14
    America's Funniest Home Videos: Love & MarriageSeptember 12, 2006Shout! FactoryMatrimony Mania, Season 12 Episode 8
    America's Funniest Home Videos: Salute to RomanceJanuary 9, 2007Shout! FactorySeason 10 Episode 14, Season 10 Episode 22, Stupid Cupid
    America's Funniest Home Videos: Motherhood MadnessApril 17, 2007Shout! FactoryA Tribute to Moms, Season 13 Episode 24
    America's Funniest Home Videos: Guide to ParentingJuly 17, 2007Shout! FactoryGuide to Parenting, Season 8 Episodes 28 and 29

    Games

    Parker Brothers released a board game in 1990. Graphix Zone released a hybrid CD-ROM titled America's Funniest Home Videos: Lights! Camera! InterAction! in 1995. Imagination Games released a DVD game in 2007.

    Toys

    An America's Funniest Home Videos micro movie viewer was released in 1990.

    International versions

    AFV has been broadcast around the world from many countries. Here is a list of international versions:
    CountryNetworkAiredLocal title
    Nine Network1990–2014Australia's Funniest Home Videos
    VTM1990–2004'
    Canal 131991–2002Video loco
    Czech Television1995–2010'
    TF11990–2008Video Gag
    Super RTL2005–2018'
    Canale 51990–2013'
    TROS1990–2004'
    SBS62002–present'
    TVP11994–2009'
    TVE11990–1998'
    TV31991–1997
    ITV1990–2022You've Been Framed