America's Got Talent

America’s Got Talent is a reality television series on NBC created by Simon Cowell, where a collection of hopefuls display their talents to a panel of judges in hopes of being the next big thing, from singers and dancers to ventriloquists and yodelers, to compete for a show as a headline on the Las Vegas strip, as well as taking home a $1,000,000 prize. Auditions are held all over the country to see who will have the chance to audition in front of the judges and a live audience. The format at this point has varied from season to season, but always involves both judge opinion and the voting of the American public viewing at home. In the most recent season, eight judges’ choice contestants were added to the selected top 40, who were then divided into groups of twelve. Each group performs per week, and five will proceed to the semi finals, with four being determined by viewers and the fifth being the choice of the judges. Those twenty are ten narrowed down to ten for the finals. Celebrities on the show have included judges Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne, Brandy Norwood, and David Hasselhoff, as well as former hosts Regis Philbin and Jerry Springer. Current judges are Howie Mandel and Nick Cannon. Past winners include 11-year-old singer Bianca Ryan, ventriloquist/impressionist/singer Terry Fator, who narrowly beat out singer/guitarist Cas Haley in season two, opera singer Neal Boyd, runner-up pianist and singer Eli Mattson, and season four winner, country singer Kevin Skinner. MORE