America’s Got Talent (often abbreviated as AGT) is a televised American talent show competition, and is part of the global Got Talent franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle USA and Syco Entertainment, distributed by the former, and broadcast on the NBC television network, premiering on June 21, 2006, after plans for a British edition in 2005 were suspended following a dispute within the British broadcaster ITV; production would later resume in 2007, following the success of the first season. Each season is mainly run during the network’s summer schedule, and has featured various hosts over the course of the program’s history; the current host is Terry Crews.
The program attracts a variety of participants, from across the United States and abroad, to take part and who possess some form of talents, with acts ranging from singing, dancing, comedy, magic, stunts, variety, and other genres. Each participant who auditions attempts to secure a place in the live episodes of a season by impressing a panel of judges – the current line-up consists of Cowell, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum and Sofia Vergara. Those that make it into the live episodes compete against each other for both the judges’ and public’s vote in order to reach the live final, where the winner receives a large cash prize, primarily paid over a period of time, and, since the third season, a chance to headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip.
The show itself has been a rating success for NBC, drawing in on average around 10 million viewers per season. In 2013, a book titled Inside AGT: The Untold Stories of America’s Got Talent was released, providing a description of the seasons, contestants, judges, and production techniques of the show, along with detailed interviews with contestants from all seasons, up to the date of the book’s publication. The program has run for a total of fifteen seasons, and spawned a spin-off competition titled America’s Got Talent: The Champions, consisting of notable contestants from the U.S. and other international versions of the franchise. The spin-off premiered on NBC on January 7, 2019.
A sixteenth season is currently set to premiere on June 1, 2021 with all judges and the host of the previous season returning.
History
Simon Cowell, creator of America’s Got Talent and the Got Talent franchise, is primarily a judge on the British international version of the franchise. He has operated as a judge on AGT since May 2016.
The concept of America’s Got Talent was devised by X Factor creator and Sony Music executive, Simon Cowell, who sought to create a talent competition far grander than those of other televised talent contests. His proposal, first made to British television network ITV in 2005, was for a competition in which participants of any age and location could enter with any form of talent they chose to perform. The network favored the concept, and green-lit production of a pilot episode to test out the format, with Cowell forming a panel consisting of himself and two other judges, including tabloid journalist Piers Morgan. The pilot proved a success, and the original plan for the program was for a British edition to be produced and broadcast between 2005 and 2006, hosted by British television personality Paul O’Grady, who had assisted with the pilot, before Cowell would propose the format for American television. However, O’Grady became involved in a dispute with ITV during work on the new program, ultimately terminating his contract with them and defecting to another British network.
As a result, Cowell suspended work on the British edition, and hastened his efforts on launching the format in America. Approaching several networks, Cowell received an offer from NBC to produce his televised competition for their network, owing to feedback given to the pilot made for ITV, and agreed to a contract to produce fifteen episodes for the 2006 summer schedule. Cowell worked heavily with production of America’s Got Talent, working alongside Fremantle with his company Syco Entertainment, but decided against becoming a judge for the new program, choosing to act as executive producer instead. Cowell and his producers hired Regis Philbin as host for the new program, with David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood, and Morgan agreeing to be judges for the first season. The first season proved a success, leading NBC to commission additional seasons, and prompting ITV to contact Cowell with the intention of resuming production on the British edition for 2007. The success of Britain’s Got Talent, alongside the American original’s own further success, effectively led Cowell to accepting offers for the rights to the competition and its format, creating the Got Talent franchise.
Format
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Auditions
Each year’s competition begins with a set of audition stages, the first of which, titled “Producers’ Auditions”, is conducted by production teams across various cities in the United States. This stage is open to all forms of acts and judged by an independent group, and thus determines who will take part in the next stage of auditions titled “Judges’ Auditions” – these are held in a public venue within select cities across the country and are attended by the judges handling that year’s contest.
Each participant that reaches this stage of auditions is held offstage from the main performing area in a waiting room, and given a number that denotes when they will perform. Upon being called before the judges, the participant is given 90 seconds to demonstrate their act, with a live audience present for all performances. Each judge is given a buzzer, and may use it during a performance if they are unimpressed, hate what is being performed, or feel the act is a waste of their time; if a participant is buzzed by all judges, their performance is automatically over. At the end of a performance, the judges give constructive criticism and feedback about what they saw, whereupon they each give a vote – a participant requires a majority vote approving their performance to proceed to the next stage, otherwise they are eliminated from the program at that stage. Many acts that move on may be cut by producers and may be forced to forfeit their place due to the limited slots available for the next stage. Filming for each season always begins when the Judges’ Auditions are taking place, with the show’s presenter standing in the wings of each venue’s stage to interview and give personal commentary on a participant’s performance.
From the fifth to seventh seasons, acts who did not attend live auditions could instead submit a taped audition online via YouTube. Acts from the online auditions were then selected to compete in front of the judges and a live audience during the “live shows” part of the season, prior to the semi-finals. Before the inclusion of this round, the show had a separate audition episode in Seasons 3 and 4 (2008–2009) for contestants who posted videos on MySpace.
In the ninth season, the show added a new format to the auditions in the form of the “Golden Buzzer”, which began to make appearances within the Got Talent franchise, since it was first introduced on Germany’s Got Talent. During auditions, each judge is allowed to use the Golden Buzzer to send an act automatically into the live shows, regardless of the opinion of the other judges; when it was initially used, the buzzer simply saved an act from elimination. The only rule to the buzzer was that a judge could use it only once per season; the host was later allowed to use the Golden Buzzer for an act starting from the eleventh season.
Second Round
Starting from the second season, auditions undergo a second stage to secure a place in the live rounds of the competition, though the format for this changed over the course of the program’s history. When the stage was first created it was designed with a “bootcamp” format, under the title of “Las Vegas Callbacks” – under the format, participants who made it through the preliminary auditions could undergo training to perfect their act, whereupon they would be set into a specific group of participants before performing a second time before the judges, who could use their buzzers to terminate a performance at any time. Those that fail to secure a place in this stage would be eliminated from that season’s competition.
Between the fourth and ninth season, the format was changed to match that used in Britain’s Got Talent – participants who made it through the preliminary auditions had their audition footage reviewed by the judges, who set each one into a specific group, and were not required to perform again, unless the judges requested this. Acts which they liked would be allocated spaces in the live rounds, with the remainder eliminated from that season’s competition; all would be brought back to learn of the results of the judges’ deliberations. The format was titled “Vegas Verdicts” and held on the Las Vegas Strip; for the final seasons of its usage, it was re-dubbed “Judgment Week” and conducted within New York.
From the tenth season, the stage’s format was changed to its current arrangement, under the title of “Judge Cuts”. Under the new format’s rules, participants that passed the preliminary auditions undergo a second stage of auditions before the judges at a fixed venue. However, their performance would not only be judged by the panel, but also by a special guest judge, with all participants divided up into four groups; each group would be judged by their own guest judge. Like the auditions, this stage allowed the use of the Golden Buzzer, but only for the guest judges, who could use it for the act they liked the most, but could not use it again upon the buzzer being used; the judges can still use their red buzzers at any time to end a performance, though no such buzzer is provided for the guest judges.
Live Rounds
Participants who pass their auditions and secure a place in the live rounds of the competitions – including those who received the Golden Buzzer, after the format’s introduction and subsequent amendment to match other Got Talent editions – are divided into groups and compete against each other to secure a place within the live final of the competition. Live episodes of the competition are held within a set venue – the location has varied, with the current arrangement focused on a venue within Los Angeles – with live episodes for each season being aired weekly on the network. The arrangement differs to the schedule used by other international editions – Britain’s Got Talent, for example, broadcasts its live episodes within the space of a single week. The structure of the live rounds by this stage of the competition has varied, but is more commonly arranged as quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final itself – earlier seasons varied, sometimes having the finals split into separate rounds.
The format of the live rounds, for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, sees each participant conducts a new performance of their act before the judges and the viewers within a “performance” episode. In this episode, the judges can still give out feedback and comments about a participant’s performance, and be able to use their buzzers, with the performance terminated if all the buzzers are used. After the episode is broadcast, the network provides the public a set period of time to vote for their act, with the results of these held in a separate “results” episode – when it is broadcast has varied, though it more commonly occurs after an interval of one day after the live “performance” episode. Participants are then informed of the results, with those receiving the highest votes (i.e. Top 4) advancing to the next stage. For the two acts that receive the mid-range of votes for all participants, they undergo a vote by the judges to determine who joins those who advanced; when the program brought in the format of using four judges, a tie-break on this vote results in the act with the higher number of public votes moving on. The Judges’ vote was not a common format element in earlier seasons – in the first season, the judges did not decide on who moved on, instead voting for acts they liked or disliked, while in the second season, they could not vote on acts at all, instead only being able to buzz them.
For some acts that are eliminated, there is still a chance for advancement by being appointed as that round’s “Wildcard”. Until the tenth season, this format varied in how it would work – in some seasons, the judges could each individually select an act, or more than one, to move on to the next stage or compete within a special Wildcard round; in other seasons, the Wildcard acts were selected from amongst the auditions and competed in a special round. Since the tenth season, the format is more structured and works in a similar manner to that of the format used by Britain’s Got Talent, in that the judges and the public can each chose the acts they want to see move on as a Wildcard act – although the judges are refrained to choosing a quarter-finalist as a Wildcard act, the public may vote online for an act within each quarter-final and semi-final to move on into the next stage, with this vote aptly named after the sponsor for the show in that respective season.
Those that make it into the season’s final compete against each other to secure the most votes from the public, with the number of finalists varying between seasons – later seasons allow each finalist more than one performance and sometimes being joined by a previous winner or notable participant from a previous season. The winning act that achieves the most votes is crowned the winner and receives a cash prize – although stipulated as $1 million per the program’s advertising, in reality winners can choose to either take it as a lump sum, or as a financial annuity of this amount that is paid out over forty years at around $25,000 per year, with both options liable to taxation. From 2008, the program also includes an additional prize of headlining a show – except from between 2010 and 2013, where the winning finalist headlined a national tour, the show they headline mainly takes place within Las Vegas.
Judges and hosts
| Season | Host | Judges (in order of first appearance) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regis Philbin | Piers Morgan | David Hasselhoff | Brandy Norwood | N/A |
| 2 | Jerry Springer | Sharon Osbourne | |||
| 3 | |||||
| 4 | Nick Cannon | ||||