America's Got Talent: Everything You Want To Know
June 4, 2007
America's Got Talent is an American reality television series on the NBC network. A talent show, it features amateur singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and others of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of $1 million.
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 from 8:00-10:00 p.m. EDT. The first, half-hour results show aired at 9:30 p.m. EDT the following Thursday. NBC extended the results shows to one hour beginning July 20 at 9:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
The show concept can be traced back to the British talent contest Opportunity Knocks, which started as a radio program in 1949 before moving to television in 1956. Among its significant features were that it gave an opportunity to talented amateurs or unknown performers and its results were decided by a public vote.
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 white check mark for approval with the electronic bell sound, meaning that they liked the act. The second button is the red 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 the 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. 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. On the 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 then proceeded to fly up above the audience, shooting confetti streamers out of his costume onto the crowd below.
In season one, the show was hosted by Regis Philbin and judged by actor David Hasselhoff, singer Brandy, and journalist Piers Morgan.
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
Season 2
After initially announcing in May 2006 that the second season of America's Got Talent would debut in January 2007 at 8PM on Sunday nights, with no separate results show, the network has changed its mind and is pushing the show back to the summer, where the first season had great success. This move will keep the show out of indirect competition with American Idol, which has a similar premise and is more popular. In its 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. In March 2007, NBC announced tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer would succeed Philbin as host, with Sharon Osbourne succeeding Brandy as a judge.
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 burlesque dancer Michelle L'amour 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.
On the first semifinal show, after the performance of the Millers, Morgan suggested that the younger brother, L.D., should "ditch" his "thoroughly average" brother, Cole, if he wanted to be a superstar, driving L.D. to tears. 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 criticized 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 not to call him dumb, and pointed out that they were the only act of their kind on the show. 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.
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
The techno-style theme song closely resembles that of American Idol, but is very nearly the same as The X Factor's (UK), however, the song that precedes the announcement of the results may sound like the Who Wants to be a Millionaire theme largely because Ricky 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.
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