The ninth season of American talent show competition series America's Got Talent was broadcast on NBC from May 27 to September 17, 2014. Following the previous season, the program underwent a number of format changes, including the second audition stage and to the Wildcard format. The most significant change to be made was the inclusion of the "Golden Buzzer", an element that was being introduced into the Got Talent franchise around that time (although the format used would later be changed by the next season). Apart from the format changes, the ninth season's audition process featured the first and only involvement of a third-party television program to collaborate with America's Got Talent in offering a place in the competition.
The ninth season was won by magician Mat Franco, with singer Emily West finishing in second, and acrobatic group Acro Army placing third. During its broadcast, the season averaged around over 10.23 million viewers.
Season overview Auditions for the ninth season's competition took place during 2013 between October and December in Miami, Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, and Providence, Rhode Island. Contestants could also submit a video of their audition online. The judges' auditions had a number of sessions held across three major venues the following year in 2014, the first within February at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, while the other two took place in April within Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Production on the season had a number of changes made. One of the most significant was the introduction of the "Golden Buzzer" format, a new addition that was brought into other editions of the Got Talent franchise. While the format was assigned to the auditions round, it functioned differently in its first use. Anyone who received the buzzer would simply gain a place in the next stage of auditions automatically, although only the judges could use it. In effect, the new buzzer was used mainly to save an act from elimination or to break up a 2–2 tie vote by judges in the auditions. Later seasons would alter the rules for the Golden Buzzer to match that of other international editions.
Another change was to incorporate an online public vote in the live rounds, named after the program's sponsor at the time, which allowed viewers to grant an automatic place in the finals to a semi-finalist in each semi-final. While they could vote via Google, they could only vote on those placed 5th, 6th and 7th in the main public vote respectively, with the remaining two who lost out facing a vote from the judges for advancement. Although the format remained for later seasons, with a different name following a change in sponsor, the ninth season is the only one in the program's history to allow this format to be used in the finals as well. Other changes that were made included a reduction in the number of quarter-finalists and quarter-finals, and the second stage of auditions being conducted in New York, rather than in Las Vegas. It retained the same format of "Vegas Verdicts", but was made more competitive and renamed as "Judgement Week". It was also originally intended to have a live audience, but this idea was later dropped.
One prominent element of the ninth season that was unusual for America's Got Talent, a decision that would not be repeated in later seasons, was to involve another television show. With the collaborative help from The Today Show, a place in the competition's live round was offered to an additional participant. The involvement of a third-party television program in the competition's audition process focused on a simple arrangement. Participants wanting a place in the competition could submit a recording of their performance on the website for The Today Show. The top three entries from these would then conduct a further performance in late July 2014 on the program, and the best of these voted for by the program's viewers would earn a place in the live rounds of the competition.
Forty-eight of the participants who auditioned for this season secured a place in the live quarter-finals, with twelve quarter-finalists performing in each show. About twenty quarter-finalists advanced and were split between the two semi-finals (including four Wildcard acts selected by the judges), with twelve semi-finalists securing a place in the finals, and six finalists securing a place in the grand-final. These are the results of each participant's overall performance during the season:
| | Wildcard Semi-finalist
ParticipantAge(s) GenreActQuarter-FinalResult AcroArmy 11-27 Acrobatics Acrobatic Group 3 ACTE II 29 & 32 Singing Opera Duo 2 Adrian Romoff 9 Music Pianist 3 Aerial Animation 33 Acrobatics Aerialist 2 Andrey Moraru 26 Acrobatics Hand Balancer 2 Anna Clendening 20 Singing / Music Singer & Guitarist 3 Bad Boys of Ballet Dance Dance Group 4 Baila Conmigo Dance Dance Group 1 Blue Journey 18 & 33 Dance Dance Duo 3 Christian Stoinev 22 Acrobatics / Animals Hand Balancer 3 Cornell Bhangra 18-23 Dance Dance Group 3 Dan Naturman 44 Comedy Comedian 1 Darik Santos 26 Comedy Comedian 2 David & Leeman 27 & 29 Magic Magicians 1 Dom the Bom's Triple Threat 8 Variety Card Throwing Trio 4 Dragon House "The Agents" 23-25 Dance Dance Trio 3 Emil & Dariel 13 & 16 Music Cellist Duo 4 Emily West 32 Singing Singer 1 Extreme Dance Company Dance Dance Group 4 Flight Crew Jump Rope 19-29 Variety Jump Rope Group 1 Hart Dance Team 14-17 Dance Dance Group 2 Jasmine Flowers 12-18 Dance Dance Group 1 Jaycob Curlee 18 Singing / Music Singer & Guitarist 2 JD Anderson 26 Variety Strongman 1 John & Andrew 21 & 41 Dance Salsa Duo 2 Jonah Smith 38 Singing / Music Singer & Pianist 4 Jonatan Riquelme 37 Acrobatics Balancing Acrobat 4 Juan Carlos 49 Dance Rollerblade Dancer 2 Julia Goodwin 15 Singing Singer 1 Kelli Glover 31 Singing Singer 4 Kieran & Finian Makepeace 27 & 31 Singing / Music Band 3 Livy, Matt & Sammy 18-21 Singing / Music Band 2 Loop Rawlins 28 Variety Wild West Performer 2 Mara Justine 11 Singing Singer 2 Mat Franco 25 Magic Magician 2 Miguel Dakota 21 Singing / Music Singer & Guitarist 1 Mike Super 37 Magic Mentalist 3 Mothmen Dance 18-35 Dance Dance Group 4 Nina Burri 36 Acrobatics Contortionist 4 One Voice Children's Choir 6-18 Singing Choir 4 Paul Ieti 21 Singing Singer 3 Quintavious Johnson 12 Singing Singer 4 Sean & Luke 17 & 18 Dance Tap Dance Duo 1 Smoothini 33 Magic Magician 4 Sons of Serendip 26-30 Singing / Music Band 3 The Willis Clan 3-21 Singing / Music Family Band 1 Valo & Bobby 31 & 37 Acrobatics Acrobatic Duo 1 Wendy Liebman 53 Comedy Comedian 3
Ages denoted for a participant(s), pertain to their final performance for this season. The ages of these participants were not disclosed on the program. The age of the dog in this act was not disclosed on the program.
Quarter-finals summary Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |
Quarter-final 1 (July 29) Guest Performers, Results Show: The Rockettes, Enrique Iglesias and Sean Paul
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (July 30) Sean & Luke 1 Valo & Bobby 2 Julia Goodwin 3 Baila Conmigo 4 David & Leeman 5 The Willis Clan 6 Flight Crew Jump Rope 7 Jasmine Flowers 8 Emily West 9 JD Anderson 10 Dan Naturman 11 Miguel Dakota 12
Flight Crew Jump Rope were later appointed as Heidi Klum's Wildcard semi-finalist.
Quarter-final 2 (August 5) Guest Performers, Results Show: Lindsey Stirling, and Lzzy Hale
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 6) Hart Dance Team 1 Loop Rawlins 2 John & Andrew 3 Livy, Matt & Sammy 4 Andrey Moraru 5 Juan Carlos 6 Mara Justine 7 Aerial Animation 8 Jaycob Curlee 9 Mat Franco 10 Darik Santos 11 Acte II 12
Quarter-final 3 (August 12) Guest Performers, Results Show: Kenichi Ebina, and Taylor Williamson
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 13) Dragon House "The Agents" 1 Anna Clendening 2 Cornell Bhangra 3 Kieran & Finian Makepeace 4 Mike Super 5 Adrian Romoff 6 AcroArmy 7 Wendy Liebman 8 Sons of Serendip 9 Blue Journey 10 Christian Stoinev 11 Paul Ieti 12
Mike Super was later appointed as Howie Mandel's Wildcard semi-finalist. Wendy Liebman was later appointed Howard Stern's Wildcard semi-finalist.
Quarter-final 4 (August 19) Guest Performers, Results Show: Taylor Williamson, and The Illusionists
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 20) Bad Boys of Ballet 1 One Voice Children's Choir 2 Jonah Smith 3 Dom the Bom's Triple Threat 4 Extreme Dance Company 5 Emil & Dariel 6 Nina Burri 7 Quintavious Johnson 8 Mothmen Dance 9 Smoothini 10 Jonatan Riquelme 11 Kelli Glover 12
Bad Boys of Ballet were later appointed as Mel B's Wildcard semi-finalist. Due to the majority vote for Kelli Glover, Klum's voting intention was not revealed.
Semi-finals summary Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |
Semi-final 1 (August 26) Guest Performer, Results Show: Ariana Grande
Semi-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 27) Flight Crew Jump Rope 1 Mara Justine 2 Bad Boys of Ballet 3 Paul Ieti 4 Mike Super 5 Andrey Moraru 6 Miguel Dakota 7 Sons of Serendip 8 David & Leeman 9 Dan Naturman 10 Aerial Animation 11 Emily West 12
Due to the majority vote for David & Leeman, Mel B's voting intention was not revealed.
Semi-final 2 (September 2) Guest Performers, Results: Maroon 5
Semi-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (September 3) Jonah Smith 1 Baila Conmigo 2 Jaycob Curlee 3 Mat Franco 4 AcroArmy 5 Kelli Glover 6 Wendy Liebman 7 Blue Journey 8 Emil & Dariel 9 Smoothini 10 Christian Stoinev 11 Quintavious Johnson 12
Finals summary Finals – Top 12 (September 9–10) Guest Performers, Results Show: The Muppets, and Jackie Evancho
Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |
FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (September 10) Mara Justine 1 David & Leeman 2 Sons of Serendip 3 Christian Stoinev 4 Emil & Dariel 5 AcroArmy 6 Quintavious Johnson 7 Mike Super 8 Blue Journey 9 Emily West 10 Mat Franco 11 Miguel Dakota 12
Grand-Final (September 16) Guest Performers, Results Show: Pitbull & The Rockettes, and Ed Sheeran
Grand-finalistPerformed with(2nd Performance)Result (September 17) AcroArmy Travis Barker 3rd Emily West Cyndi Lauper 2nd Mat Franco Rosie O'Donnell 1st Miguel Dakota Lenny Kravitz 6th Quintavious Johnson Jennifer Hudson 5th Sons of Serendip Train 4th
Ratings The following ratings are based upon those published by Nielsen Media Research after this season's broadcast: