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 (as well as distributed by) and Syco Entertainment, and broadcasts on the NBC television network. It premiered 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,[3] 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,[4] Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, 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 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. It includes detailed interviews with contestants from all seasons, up to the date of the book’s publication.[5]
The series has run for a total of eighteen seasons, with the eighteenth season airing May–September 2023, 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). The main series returned for season nineteen in summer 2024 with host Crews and judges Cowell, Mandel, Klum, and Vergara all returning.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).[6] 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[7] (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.[8]
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,[9] with David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood and Morgan as judges.[10] 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.
