| America's Got Talent | |
|---|---|
| Format | Interactive reality talent show |
| Created by | Simon Cowell Ken Warwick Cécile Frot-Coutaz Jason Raff |
| Creative director(s) | Brian Friedman |
| Presented by | Regis Philbin (2006) Jerry Springer (2007–2008) Nick Cannon (2009–present) |
| Judges | Piers Morgan (2006–2011) Brandy Norwood (2006) David Hasselhoff (2006–2009) Sharon Osbourne (2007–present) Howie Mandel (2010–present) Howard Stern (2012–present) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 136 (as of September 14, 2011) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Simon Cowell Ken Warwick Jason Raff |
| Running time | 60–120 minutes |
| Production company(s) | FremantleMedia North America SYCOtv |
| Distributor | FremantleMedia Enterprises |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) (2006-2008) 1080i (HDTV) (2009-present) |
| Original run | June 21, 2006 – present |
America's Got Talent (also known as AGT or Got Talent) is an American reality television series on the NBC television network, and part of the global British Got Talent franchise. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of $1 million. The show debuted in June 2006 for the summer television season. From season 3 onwards, the prize included $1 million, payable in a financial annuity over 40 years (or the present cash value of such annuity), and a show as the headliner on the Las Vegas Strip.
Among its significant features were that it gave an opportunity to talented amateurs or unknown performers, with the results decided by an audience vote. The format is a popular one and has often been reworked for television in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The current incarnation was created by Simon Cowell, and was originally due to be a 2005 British series called Paul O'Grady's Got Talent[1] but was postponed due to O'Grady's acrimonious split with broadcaster ITV. As such, the American version became the first full series of the Got Talent franchise. Despite being heavily involved in the show's production, Cowell does not appear as a judge. This is due to the conditions of his contract with Fox Network.
Contents |
| Years | Host | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Regis Philbin | 1 |
| 2007–2008 | Jerry Springer | 2–3 |
| 2009–present | Nick Cannon | 4–present |
| Years | Judge | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| 2006–2011 | Piers Morgan | 1–6 |
| 2006 | Brandy Norwood | 1 |
| 2006–2009 | David Hasselhoff | 1–4 |
| 2007–present | Sharon Osbourne | 2–present |
| 2010–present | Howie Mandel | 5–present |
| 2012–present | Howard Stern | 7–present |
The general selection process of the show begins with separate untelevised producers' auditions, which come to various cities across the United States, some which will host the auditions held in theaters, and some which usually only host the producers' auditions. This round is held several months before the judges' audition in cities that would also host the televised second round. Acts that have made it through the producers' audition will then audition in front of the judges and a live audience.
Following the producers' auditions, acts will audition in front of three celebrity judges. The judges may terminate an act's performance early by pressing their red buzzer, which lights up their corresponding X on stage. If an act receives three X's, they must stop their performance. Since Season 3, large audiences have also been a factor in the judging process, as their reaction to an act's performance may swing or influence a judge's vote. If an act receives two or more "yes" votes, they will move on to the next round.
Since Season 2, Las Vegas Week has been an intermediary round between the auditions and live shows that takes place in a notable venue on the Las Vegas Strip. Names for this round in previous seasons has included "Las Vegas Callbacks" and "Vegas Verdicts". The Las Vegas round generally consists of acts performing a second time for the judges (with the exception of Season 4), who then pick select acts to move on the live shows. An act eliminated in Las Vegas Week is not completely excluded from the live show competition, as several seasons have featured contestants being brought back from this round as "wild card" acts.
Prior to the inclusion of this round, the judges would have a list containing a number of acts which advanced past the auditions during each live show. The judges would then pick ten acts from that group each week, leaving several acts without the chance to perform.
During the live shows, a group of acts ranging from only a Top 20 (Season 2), to as many as 48, compete for viewers' and judges' votes. In the first season, the judges could not end an act's performance, but could either "check" or "X" the performance during their critique. Since Season 2, judges have been able to end an act's performance early, and the "check" was removed. Acts generally perform in a first round consisting of a series of quarterfinals. These rounds may also consist of additional shows for "Wild Card" acts brought back from previous rounds, and, since Season 5, performances from finalists of YouTube auditions. From these shows, the existing group is cut in half through votes by the public and the judges. At this stage, the judges' vote is generally limited to critiques, although in all seasons (excluding Season 2), they have been able to put one act through to the next round during the first round of live shows. Acts then move on to a semifinal round, and even further rounds (such as a "Top 8" or a "Top 10", depending on the season) through a series of weekly shows, which trim the number of acts down each time based on a public vote. In the majority of seasons, judges have had no vote from the semifinals on. All these rounds culminate in a live final, which has consisted of anywhere from four to ten acts throughout the seasons. The act with the most votes is declared the winner, and given $1,000,000, and, since Season 3, a chance to headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip.
Since Season 5, the show has also made the winner the headline act of a national tour with runners up following the final show, stopping in 25 cities in 2010.[2][3]
In May 2006, NBC announced the new show. The audition tour took place in June. Auditions were held in the following locations: Los Angeles, New York City, New York, Chicago and Atlanta. Some early ads for the show implied that the winning act would also headline a show at a casino, possibly in Las Vegas; however, this was replaced with $1,000,000 due to concerns of minors playing in Las Vegas, should one become a champion. More than 12 million viewers watched the season premiere (which is more than American Idol got during its premiere back in 2002). The two-hour broadcast was the night's most-watched program on U.S. television and the highest-rated among viewers aged 18 to 49 (the prime-time audience that matters most to advertisers), Nielsen Media Research reported.[4] On the season finale, there was an unaired segment that was scheduled to appear after Aly & AJ. The segment featured Tom Green dressing in a parrot costume, and squawking with a live parrot, to communicate telepathically. Green then proceeded to fly up above the audience, shooting confetti streamers out of his costume onto the crowd below.
In season 1, the show was hosted by Regis Philbin and judged by actor David Hasselhoff, singer Brandy Norwood, and journalist Piers Morgan.
The winner of the season was 11-year old singer Bianca Ryan, and the runners-up were clogging group All That, and musical group The Millers.
After initially announcing in June 2006 that the second season of America's Got Talent would debut in January 2007 at 8 PM on Sunday nights, with no separate results show, the network changed its mind and pushed the show back to the summer, where the first season had great success. This move kept the show out of direct competition with American Idol, which has a similar premise and is more popular. In AGT's place, another reality-based talent show, Grease: You're The One That I Want, began airing on Sunday nights in the same timeslot on NBC beginning in January.[5] In March 2007, NBC announced that Philbin would not return as host of the show, and that Jerry Springer would succeed him as host,[6] with Sharon Osbourne (formerly a judge on Cowell's UK show The X Factor) succeeding Brandy as a judge. This means the show, ironically, had two British judges and one American one.
The second season had no results show, replaced by results on the performance show night instead; in addition, each Tuesday broadcast was repeated (along with The Singing Bee episode that followed the 90-minute editions of AGT) by NBC the following Saturday.
The finale of the season was shown Tuesday, August 21, 2007, with Terry Fator, a ventriloquist who is also a singer, being named the winner, and singer Cas Haley as runner-up.
NBC announced in August 2007 that the network had renewed the show for a third season. Auditions took place in Charlotte, Nashville, Orlando, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago from January to April. A televised MySpace audition also took place. Sharon Osbourne, Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff returned as judges. Jerry Springer also returned as host. The show premiered on June 17, 2008.
The third season of the show differed from the previous two in many ways. Auditions were held in well-known theaters across the nation, and a new title card was introduced, featuring the American flag as background. The X's match the ones on Britain's Got Talent as does the judges table. Like the previous season, the Las Vegas callbacks continued, but there were forty acts selected to compete in the live rounds, instead of twenty. This season also contained several results episodes, but not on a regular basis.
The show took a hiatus for two and a half weeks for the 2008 Summer Olympics, but returned with the live rounds on August 26, 2008.
Neal E. Boyd, an opera singer, was named the winner on October 1, 2008.
NBC announced that America's Got Talent was renewed for a fourth season. Auditions for season 4 were held in more than 9 major cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, Miami, Tacoma, Boston and Houston. Los Angeles Auditions kicked off the tour January 29–31 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, followed by Atlanta Auditions February 7–8. New York and Miami Auditions were held during March. Tacoma Auditions were held April 25 and 26. In addition to live auditions and the ability to send in a home audition tape, Season 4 offered the opportunity for acts to upload their video direct at NBC.com/agt with their registration. This year's host is Nick Cannon, who replaced Jerry Springer. Springer said that he could not host due to other commitments.[7] All Season 3 judges returned for the fourth season.[8] The fourth season premiered on Tuesday, June 23.
Season 4 of America's Got Talent borrowed the audition process from Season 3, but renamed the 'Las Vegas Callbacks' to 'Vegas Verdicts'. This was the first season since Season 1 where results episodes last one hour on a regular basis. The title card this year features bands of the American flag and stars waving around the America's Got Talent logo.
At the end of Las Vegas Week, Simon Cowell, the executive producer of America's Got Talent, called the judges by phone while they were flying back to Los Angeles, stating that he was unhappy with some of the eliminations the judges made. Cowell stated that this season had a lot of talent and presented the judges with eight acts he thought America should see again. As a result, two wild card acts performed each week along with the ten already scheduled to perform, expanding the Top 40 to the Top 48.
On September 16, 2009, Kevin Skinner, an American Country music singer, was named the winner of America's Got Talent for season 4. His grand prize was one million dollars and a headline show at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
NBC announced that the show was renewed for its fifth season. The network had considered moving the show to the fall, after rival series So You Think You Can Dance transferred from the summer to fall season in 2009.[9] However, NBC ultimately decided to keep Talent a summer show, which was also the fate of rival Dance.
Open auditions were held in the winter to early spring of 2010 in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, Orlando, and Portland. Untelevised producers' auditions were also held in Atlanta and Philadelphia. For the first time, online auditions were also held via YouTube.
For the 2010 season, David Hasselhoff left to host a new television show,[10] and was replaced by comedian and Deal or No Deal host Howie Mandel. This made Piers Morgan the only original judge left in the show.[11] The judging panel now consisted of two British judges and a Canadian one.
The show premiered Tuesday, June 1 at 8PM ET. Afterward, Talent resumed the same time slot as the previous season.[12]
On September 15, 2010, Michael Grimm, an American singer/songwriter, was named the winner of the fifth season of America's Got Talent. He won a $1,000,000 prize and a chance to perform at the Caesar's Palace Casino and Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as headline the 25-city America's Got Talent Live Tour along with Jackie Evancho, Fighting Gravity, Prince Poppycock, and the other top ten finalists.[2][3]
NBC announced that the show has been renewed for a sixth season and premiered on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 for a two-hour special. Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne continued as judges after taking jobs on Piers Morgan Tonight and The Talk, respectively. On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on July 27, 2010, Morgan officially stated that he has signed a three year contract to stay on Talent.[13] In addition, Howie Mandel returned as a judge, and Nick Cannon returned as host. [14]
The show held televised auditions in Los Angeles, New York City, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Seattle, and Houston. Untelevised producers' auditions were also held in Denver and Chicago. Previews of auditions were shown during NBC's The Voice premiere on April 26, 2011. Online auditions via YouTube were also held for the second time in the show's run, beginning on May 4, 2011. Finalists for this audition circuit competed live on August 9.
The format of the season is generally unchanged from Season 5.
Due to the live shows of The Voice in June, AGT was aired one hour earlier than its usual Tuesday timeslot, at 8/7c. The show resumed its regular 9/8c timeslot on Tuesdays at the start of the live shows on July 12, 2011. AGT retained its regular Wednesday 9/8c timeslot throughout the season.
On Wednesday, September 14, 2011, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., a Frank Sinatra style singer, was named the winner of the sixth season of America's Got Talent. Dance group Silhouettes was runner-up. He won a $1,000,000 prize and will headline at Caesar's Palace Casino and Resort along with the other final four finalists as well as other fan favorites such as Anna Graceman and Landon Swank.
Leonid the Magnificent also came back to audition for a third time. Leonid was buzzed by Piers Morgan in his audition but advanced to Vegas. He was eliminated in Vegas Week.
On August 12, 2011, NBC confirmed that it was renewing America's Got Talent for a seventh run.
The first round of auditions, which are usually judged by producers,were held in New York City, Washington, D.C., Tampa, Florida, Charlotte, North Carolina, Austin, Texas, and St. Louis, Missouri.[15] The show will begin its live auditions round in February 2012.
On November 11, 2011, Piers Morgan announced he will not be returning as a judge for the seventh season of America's Got Talent, due to his work hosting CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight. [16]
On December 15, 2011, Howard Stern announced live on his SiriusXM radio show that he will be replacing Piers Morgan as the new judge for the 7th season. In addition, since Stern took the job, the show will move to New York City. [17] Simon Cowell, the show's executive producer, also announced on The New York Post in December that the show will be a receiving a "top-to-bottom makeover", confirming that there will be a fourth judge, in addition to new graphics, lighting, theme music, and a larger live audience. He also expects current judges Osbourne and Mandel, in addition to host Nick Cannon, to continue for the seventh season. [18]
America's Got Talent Live is a show on the Las Vegas Strip that features the winner of each season of Talent as the main performance.
In 2009, America's Got Talent Live appeared on the Las Vegas Strip appearing Wednesday through Sunday at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, in a limited 10-week run starting in October, 2009 through January of the next year. It featured the final ten acts which made it to the Season 4 Finale. Former host of America's Got Talent, Jerry Springer, emceed,[19] commuting weekly between Stamford, Connecticut tapings of his self-named show and Las Vegas.
In 2010, on the first live show of the fifth season, the winner headlined America's Got Talent Live from Caesar's Palace Casino and Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, which was part of a 25-city tour that featured the season's finalists. Jerry Springer returned as both host of the tour and the headline show.
America's Got Talent Live returned for its third run in 2011.
Since the show's beginning, the show's ratings have been usually very high, ranging from 9 million viewers to as many as 16 million viewers, generally averaging around 12 million viewers. The show's has also ranked high in the 18-49 demographic, usually rating anywhere from as low as 2.0 to as high as 4.6 throughout its run. Average ratings have been around 3.0-3.9 for most seasons. Audition shows and performance shows rate higher on average than results shows.
Although the show's ratings have been high, NBC has chosen not to place the show as a competitor in the fall or spring seasons for various reasons. A brief run by the show in the fall in 2008, which was due to NBC's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics, proved to be underwhelming, with the series averaging only around 10 million viewers, and the finale down significantly from the previous year. During the first weeks of the fall season in 2009, however, a results show of America's Got Talent performed well against the season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance and the highly promoted world premiere of Glee, posting 9.7 million viewers, compared to only 6.5 million viewers for So You Think You Can Dance and 7.1 million viewers for Glee. However, rival SYTYCD delivered poorly in the fall, which was likely a factor in NBC's decision to keep Talent in the summer.
The highest rated season in overall viewers to date is Season 4. The most-watched episode has been the finale of the fifth season, with 16.41 million viewers. The series premiere, and an episode featuring the first part of Las Vegas Week in Season 6, have each tied for highest rating among adults 18-49, both having a 4.6 rating.
The performance shows are rated TV-14 and the results shows are rated TV-PG.
| Season | Timeslot (EDT) | Season premiere | Premiere viewers (in millions) |
Season finale | Finale viewers (in millions) |
TV season | Rank | Season average (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wednesday 8:00 P.M. Thursday 9:00 P.M. (Results) |
June 21, 2006 | 12.41[20][21] | August 17, 2006 | 12.05[22] | 2006 | #1 | 10.00 |
| 2 | Tuesday 8:00 P.M. | June 5, 2007 | 12.93[21] | August 21, 2007 | 13.87[22] | 2007 | #1 | 12.00 |
| 3 | Tuesday 8:00 P.M. | June 17, 2008 | 12.80 | October 1, 2008 | 12.55 | 2008 | #1 | 11.38 |
| 4 | Tuesday 9:00 P.M. Wednesday 9:00 P.M. |
June 23, 2009 | 11.30[23] | September 16, 2009 | 15.53[24] | 2009 | #1 | 11.91 |
| 5 | Tuesday 9:00 P.M. Wednesday 9:00 P.M. |
June 1, 2010 | 12.35 | September 15, 2010[25] | 16.41 | 2010 | #1[26] | 11.02 |
| 6 | Tuesday 8:00 P.M. (May 31-July 5) Tuesday 9:00 P.M. (after July 5) Wednesday 9:00 P.M. |
May 31, 2011[27] | 15.28 | September 14, 2011 | 14.37 | 2011 | #1 | 11.82 |
| Year | Presenter | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Competition Show | Nominated |
| Kids' Choice Awards | Favorite Reality Show | Nominated | |
| Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Hairstyling For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special | Nominated |
The sales numbers are American sales only.
| Rank | Former contestant Total sales |
Debut album | Second album | Third album | Fourth album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jackie Evancho (Season 5, Runner-Up) 1,536,000 |
Prelude to a Dream (November 15, 2009) Independent n/a 4,000[28] Peak: #121 |
O Holy Night (November 16, 2010) SYCO/Columbia Records Platinum[29] 1,000,000[30][31][32] Peak: #2 |
Dream With Me (June 14, 2011) Sony Records Gold[33] 505,000 [34][35][36][37] Peak: #2 |
Heavenly Christmas (November 1, 2011) Sony Records n/a 27,000[38] Peak: #16 |
| Former Contestant | Total Sales | Albums | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | Bianca Ryan (Season 1, Winner) |
150,000[39] |
|
| 3. | Cas Haley (Season 2, Runner-Up) |
40,000[40][41] |
|
| 4. | Michael Grimm (Season 5, Winner) |
22,000[42] |
|
| 5. | Donald Braswell II (Season 3, 4th Place) |
12,500 |
|
| 6. | Neal E. Boyd (Season 3, Winner) |
6,000[43] |
|
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