America's Got Talent (often abbreviated as AGT) is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global Got Talent television franchise created by Simon Cowell. Produced by Fremantle and Syco Entertainment, it premiered on NBC 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, who possess some form of talents. Acts range from singing, dancing, comedy, magic, stunts, variety and other genres. Each participant or act 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, Mel B, and Sofía Vergara. Participants making it into the live episodes, compete against each other for both the judges' and public's vote, in order to reach the live final. The winner receives a 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. It includes detailed interviews with contestants from all seasons, up to the date of the book's publication.Daly, Sean and Ashley Majeski. Inside AGT: The Untold Stories of America's Got Talent, CreateSpace Independent Publishing (2013)
The series has run for a total of twenty-one seasons, and has spawned four spin-off competitions: America's Got Talent: The Champions (2019–20), AGT: Extreme (2022), America's Got Talent: All-Stars (2023), and America's Got Talent: Fantasy League (2024).
History The concept of America's Got Talent was devised by The 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 to be a success. 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 with Fremantle and his company Syco Entertainment, but decided against becoming a judge for the new program, choosing to act as executive producer instead. Regis Philbin served as the host, with David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood and Morgan as judges. 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 (along with the American series), led Cowell to accept offers for the rights to the competition format, creating the Got Talent franchise.
Format
Auditions Each year's competition begins with a set of audition stages, the first being the "Producers' Auditions", is conducted 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 reaching 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, dislike 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 are each given 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 or forfeit their place, due to the limited slots available for the next stage. Filming for each season 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 After auditions are completed, the judges conduct a special session (or second "audition" round) to determine which participants will secure a place in the live rounds of the competition, though the format for this stage has been changed several times over the course of the program's history. When the stage was first created after the first season, it was designed around a "boot camp" format titled "Las Vegas Callbacks". Under the format's rules, participants who made it through the preliminary auditions could undergo training to perfect their act, whereupon each would be assigned to a specific group of participants and perform a second time before the judges. Buzzers would be used to terminate a performance at any time, with those not deemed worthy of a place being eliminated from that season's format.
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 acts were 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.
Between the tenth season and fourteenth season, the stage's format was changed again under a new arrangement dubbed "Judge Cuts". Under the new format's rules, participants that passed the preliminary auditions underwent 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, the main judges could use their buzzers at any time to stop a performance, while the guest judge would be allowed to use a Golden Buzzer for a participant they particularly liked (as well as providing comments on the performances they watched). In the fifteenth season, the round was condensed into a single episode and featured no guest judge, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in 2020. The round was replaced to its current arrangement for the sixteenth season, matching that of Britain's Got Talent around that time.
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 and live episodes for each season being aired weekly on the network. The arrangement differs from 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.