America's Got Talent
Genre	Interactive Reality talent show game show
Running time	Varies
Creator(s)	Simon Cowell Ken Warwick  Cécile Frot-Coutaz Jason Raff
Starring	Regis Philbin Piers Morgan Brandy David Hasselhoff
Country of origin	USA
Original channel	NBC
Original run	June 21, 2006–Present
No. of episodes	15 (season 1)
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

America's Got Talent is an American television show on NBC.

The talent show is a search for America's next talent. The show features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and other talents of all ages. Anyone who believes they have talent can audition.

The performance shows of America's Got Talent are rated TV-PG, and the results shows are rated TV-14.

The advertised top prize is one million dollars. Some early ads for the show implied that the winning act would also headline a show at a casino, possibly in Las Vegas; however, there has been no mention of this on the show or in the most recent promotions.

The show premiered with a two-hour special on June 21, 2006 from 9:00-11:00 p.m. EDT. The semifinals began on July 13. The Wednesday performance shows are two-hours from 8:00-10:00 p.m. EDT. The first results show aired at 9:30 p.m. EDT the following Thursday, however NBC extended the results shows to one hour beginning July 20, to air from 9:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.

Regis Philbin is the host. The judges are Piers Morgan, Brandy and David Hasselhoff. Neither the host nor the judges know the content of the acts in advance of their performances.

The show concept can be traced back to British television program Opportunity Knocks.

Contents 1 Selection/elimination process 2 Season 1 2.1 Finalists 2.2 Winner 3 Judging styles 4 Notes 5 Outside the U.S. 5.1 Australia 5.2 Canada 5.3 UK 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Selection/elimination process

For the audition round, each of the three judges has a button in front of them that they can press when they do not want the act to continue; the button rings an electronic bell (similar to the "Press Your Luck" sound effect that was used when a contestant passed their spins) and a large red "X" with the judge's name lights up over the stage. A louder, different sound (similar to Family Feud's strike sound byte) indicates the third judge's button was pressed, and the contestant's performance is terminated. This is not as significant as it might be, since the judges occasionally cheat and press one another's buttons to abort even if a consensus of disapproval has not been reached. Then, the judges are asked whether the contestant should continue to the next round, with the approval of two out of three judges required. The button voting is not "final," and occasionally a supporting judge can talk a disapproving one into switching sides. From there, the contestant is either rejected or passed to the next round of performance.

In the semifinal round, the system was changed; the judges were no longer allowed to stop the acts. There are now two buttons; the first button is used to signify a "check" for approval with the electronic bell sound, meaning that they liked the act. The second button is the "X" button, with the electronic strike sound, used to signify disapproval, meaning that they didn't like the act.

There are four semifinal episodes, in which two finalists are chosen in each episode. After all selected acts have performed in an episode, the judges deliberate to choose an act to move on to the final round. The decision must be unanimous among the three judges; should they not reach a consensus, their decision is announced on the results show the next day. Viewers then vote by phone, by text messaging, or through NBC's website for the remaining slot by majority decision. After the last semifinal episode, there is a "wild card" episode. The four second-place viewers' choices and six acts selected by the judges (two per judge) perform again. Then, as before, the judges pick a contestant and the viewers choose an act to move on to the finals.

Season 1

In June 2006, NBC announced their plans to have a new show. The audition tour took place in June. Auditions were held in the following locations: Los Angeles, California, New York City, New York, Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta, Georgia.

Finalists

• The Millers (Judges' choice, July 12): A musical group consisting of two brothers. Cole, age 20, plays guitar, and L.D., age 12, plays harmonica.
• Taylor Ware (Viewers' choice, July 13): An 11 year old yodelist/country singer.
• Realis (Judges' choice, July 20): An acrobatics mixed pair performing hand-to-hand balancing and releases.
• At Last (Viewers' choice, July 20): An a cappella act, performing R&B songs with a hip hop beat.
• Rappin' Granny (real name: Vivian Smallwood) (Judges' choice, July 26): A 73 year old rapper.
• Bianca Ryan (Viewers' choice, July 27): An 11 year old singer.
• The Passing Zone (Judges' choice, August 2): A comedy/juggling act.
• Celtic Spring (Viewers' choice, August 3): A family Irish step dancing/fiddling act.
• All That (Judges' choice, August 9): A clogging ensemble.
• Quick Change (Viewers' choice, August 10): Clothes-changing magic act.

Winner

• Bianca Ryan was the winner of the first season.

Judging styles

In the audition phase, Morgan was usually fastest hitting his "X" (strike) button, expressing disapproval even when Brandy and Hasselhoff did not (loosely mirroring Simon Cowell's disapproval of the audition when Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson did not on American Idol). On several occasions after pressing his strike button, he reached over and pressed Brandy's button, and on occasion, stood up to press Hasselhoff's button, singlehandedly stopping the act. Occasionally, Hasselhoff would be the last one who had not hit the "X" button, letting the act still go on despite Brandy and Piers having long hit their buttons (Brandy and Piers attempted a few times to hit Hasselhoff's button to end the act, a couple of times succeeding, but Hasselhoff always tried to block them). Also, When a burlesque dancer started to strip on one episode, Piers and Hasselhoff tried to hold back Brandy as she tried to strike their buttons. The judges had diverse preferences.

Morgan's judging style and beliefs, in particular, have drawn the interest of contestants and viewers alike. On the first semifinal show, after the performance of the Millers, Morgan suggested that the younger brother, L.D., should "ditch" his less talented brother, Cole, if he wants to be a superstar. This made L.D. cry, because he believed in the group and his family. Nonetheless, the Millers were put through to the finals by the three judges. On the fourth semifinal show, Morgan found fault with the family group Celtic Spring, saying that the group should "sack mum, dad, and [the] little brother," in another case of unequal talent. The youngest brother and sister cried, and the rest of the siblings stood their ground, saying their mom and dad were part of their backup. The viewers put Celtic Spring through to the finals. On the wild card show, Piers told the two members of David & Dania - Quick Change, "Are you deaf? Are you dumb? Or are you just so arrogant about that act that you think that's all you have to do?" David responded with a warning to not to call him dumb, and pointed out they are the only act of its kind in the competition. Dania later left the stage in tears, and while backstage said that his comments were hurtful. Once again, viewers voted for this group to perform in the finals. Sources, such as USA Today, have said these moments were among the worst in the show. ^[1]

On the second semifinal show, the judges were unable to reach a unanimous decision for their choice by the end of the episode. On the results show, Morgan revealed that he refused to add a third singing act to the two that had already made it to the finals (The Millers and Taylor Ware), stating "this is not American Idol" and he "wanted a more diverse group of acts for the final". The judges chose Realis as a result, and the viewers chose another singing act, At Last, to go through.

There were three methods to vote for the viewer's choice - by telephone, text message from a cell phone, or online at NBC.com. Unlike American Idol, there was a limit of 10 votes per contestant per method.

Notes

• More than 12 million viewers tuned in to the premiere (which is more than what 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. ^[2]

• This is Regis Philbin's first regular appearance on a primetime show since Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire.

• In the earlier episodes, Regis Philbin argubly appeared ineffectual and stiff while hosting his first reality contest show, but as the show progressed, he appeared more natural and comfortable.

• The techno-style theme song closely resembles that of American Idol, however, the song that precedes the announcement of the results may sound like the Who Wans to be a Millionaire theme largely because Rickey Minor is the musical director of both shows.

• The song "I Like the Way (You Move)" by the BodyRockers is featured prominently in the series.

• America's Got Talent shares many features with The Gong Show, as stated by David Letterman on the Late Show.

• 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. This may also cause confusion with the prize for the winner of the second season of So You Think You Can Dance; the winner of that show will win $100,000 and a role as a dancer at Celine Dion's Las Vegas show, A New Day.

• NBC has already renewed America's Got Talent for a second season. It was originally announced at NBC's fall upfront presentation, that it would air at 8PM on Sunday nights, beginning in January 2007, after NBC Sunday Night Football completes its first season. The January 2007 return was also announced on the July 26th episode, although the Sunday timeslot was not mentioned.^[3][4] With's NBC's revisions to its fall schedule a week after the original announcement, it is unknown if the Sunday 8:00 P.M. timeslot will remain, and if the original plan to not have a results show will stay intact.

• On the first season finale, there was an unaired segment that was scheduled to appear after Aly and AJ. The segment featured Tom Green dressing in a parrot costume, and "squalking" with a live parrot, to communicate "telepathically". Green than proceded to fly up above the audience, shooting confetti streamers out of his costume onto the crowd below. This occured at a taping at 3:30 P.M. PST.

Outside the U.S.

Australia

• Later this year, Seven Network will debut Australia's Got Talent [1], an Australian adaptation of the American show. A host and judges have not been named yet.

Canada

• CTV While America's Got Talent is on at 9:00 P.M. Wednesdays on NBC, it aired an hour later on CTV in the beginning due to show scheduling other live shows , such as Canadian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Now, America's Got Talent airs at 8:00 p.m. and So You Think You Can Dance airs before it, although Canadians who recieve American Stations on cable TV or satellite TV can still watch the show at it's regularly scheduled time on NBC.

UK

• Early next year, ITV will debut Britain's Got Talent, a British adaption of the American show. The series is likely to air early next year following the conclusion of The X Factor. Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell will be judges. [2]

See also

References