America's Got Talent

America's Got Talent (sometimes abbreviated as AGT) is an American reality television series on the NBC television network, and part of the global British Got Talent series franchise. It began in June 21, 2006. It features singers, dancers, magicians and other talents from America to compete for a contract and $1,000,000 and as a headliner on the Las Vegas Strip since season 3.

America's Got Talent
Genre	Reality Talent contest
Created by	Simon Cowell
Directed by	Russell Norman
Creative director(s)	Brian Friedman
Presented by	Regis Philbin Jerry Springer Nick Cannon Tyra Banks Terry Crews
Judges	Piers Morgan David Hasselhoff Brandy Norwood Sharon Osbourne Howard Stern Howie Mandel Mel B Heidi Klum Simon Cowell Julianne Hough Gabrielle Union Sofia Vergara
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	17
No. of episodes	402
Production
Executive producer(s)	Simon Cowell Sam Donnelly Jason Raff Rob Wade Trish Kinane Richard Wallace
Running time	44–104 minutes
Production company(s)	FremantleMedia North America SYCOtv
Distributor	FremantleMedia Enterprises
Release
Original network	NBC
Picture format	NTSC (480i) (2006–08) HDTV 1080i (2009–present)
Original release	June 21, 2006 (2006-06-21) – present (present)
Other websites
Official website

Format

Artists compete for the judges votes. Before appearing, Applicants must audition to impress the crew who works on the show. This is how people get a chance to impress the judges.

Note: Certain seasons may have different variations of rounds.

Auditions

Once applicants have made the show, they go on stage with the judges. Before the act, they introduce themselves("Who are you and where are you from?") is a common line. They perform their act with added help from the crew that helps the contestants with playing music, and props. The coaches have a big red X button they can press if the act starts performing and they get bored, don't like the act, or think the act isn't "talent" material or just plain stupid. If an act receives all of the Judges X's, they must stop performing, however, some have ignored the unofficial rule. After the act is complete, the judges make comments make positive and/or negative about it. Each judge then votes. If an act received 3 Yes's(75%) or more, they move on to the next round of competition. If an act received 2 yes's(50%) or less, they are eliminated from the competition. X's do not determine a judge's yes or no decision. Even if an act received four X's, they can still go through if they can convince the judges to give them 3 yes's, they still go through.

Judge Cuts

The second round of the competition features the contestants performing an act again(usually better and bigger) than the last time. The Judges decide on a certain number of acts moving to the live shows. The contestants are usually split into a certain number of groups as well. The judges decide who moves on as a group, instead of individually. The judges can still X a performance, but all performances are eligible to move on when the judges X a performance, even with four X's.

Winners

• Season 1: Bianca Ryan
• Season 2: Terry Fator
• Season 3: Neal E. Boyd
• Season 4: Kevin Skinner
• Season 5: Michael Grimm
• Season 6: Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr.
• Season 7: Olate Dogs
• Season 8: Kenichi Ebina
• Season 9: Mat Franco
• Season 10: Paul Zerdin
• Season 11: Grace VanderWaal
• Season 12: Darci Lynne
• Season 13: Shin Lim
• Season 14: Kodi Lee
• Season 15: Brandon Leake
• Season 16: Dustin Tavella

AGT: The Champions

• Season 1: Shin Lim
• Season 2: V.Unbeatable

Other websites

• America's Got Talent on IMDb