America's Got Talent (season 1)

The first season of American talent show competition series America's Got Talent was broadcast on NBC from June 21 to August 17, 2006. The season went into production a year earlier than planned by Got Talent creator Simon Cowell, who had intended for Britain's Got Talent to debut first in 2006 until its production was suspended, following internal conflicts within its British television network. For its first season, production staff appointed David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood, and Piers Morgan to be the program's first judges, and its first host to be Regis Philbin. Unusually, this season involved an early format for live round judging and Wildcard acts that would be later changed after the season's conclusion.

The first season was won by singer Bianca Ryan,^[1] with clogging dance group All That and singer & musician duo The Millers finishing as runner-ups within the Top 3 finalists; the season's actual results for second and third place were not declared. The success of this season, per its ratings, helped to foster development of other international editions of the Got Talent franchise, along with restarting production on the British edition.

Season overview[]

Both Brandy Norwood and Regis Philbin fronted AGT for the first season only.

In 2005, Simon Cowell devised plans for a televised talent competition, originally intending for it be created and broadcast in Britain through the British broadcaster ITV, with an American edition to follow after its first season. However, following a pilot broadcast of the format, a dispute arose between ITV and Paul O'Grady, the originally intended host of Britain's Got Talent.^[2] In the wake of the dispute, after O'Grady decided to sign on to another network, Cowell suspended production on the British edition, and instead focused on the American edition in 2006. His proposal for his program in America was bought by NBC, who commissioned a small season of episodes, with Cowell working alongside Freemantle with his own company Syco Entertainment. Production staff launched open auditions across the United States at this time, while they subsequently searched for and chose those who would front the program in the required roles - while Regis Philbin was picked as the host,^[3] the judging panel featured the involvement of David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood, and Piers Morgan.^[4] After the open auditions had been completed, those who had been nominated for the program were entered into more an extensive round of major auditions, with these being filmed and taking place across three major cities in April 2006 - Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

The format used in the first season of America's Got Talent for live rounds differed greatly to what would later be used in later seasons of the program, as well as for other international editions of the Got Talent franchise. In the semi-finals and the final itself, the judges would make votes about each participants performance, pertaining to whether they approved or disapproved of an act, with no use of a buzzer to stop a performance at any times. While each semi-final would offer two places in the live final, any act eliminated by this stage would have a chance to be picked as a Wildcard for a special semi-final  – two by each judge from any semi-final, and one by the public from each round  – with an additional two places offered.

Of the participants who auditioned for this season, 40 secured a place in the semi-finals, with ten appearing in each one, and eight of these acts making it into the live final. Around ten of the semi-finalists who didn't advance were chosen by the judges to compete within a WildCard round, and secured two additional places in the final. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this season:

  Winner |   Runner-Up |   Finalist |   Semi-finalist

• ^1 These participants were entered into the Wildcard semi-final, after losing their initial semi-final.

Semi-final summary[]

Judge Disapproved | Judge Approved

  Won the public vote |   Won the judges' vote

  Chosen for Wildcard Round (Semi-Finals 1-4 only) |   Eliminated

Semi-final 1 (July 12)[]

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Teddy Geiger

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (July 13)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
Taylor Ware	1				Won Public Vote
All That	2				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Kevin Johnson	3				Eliminated
Alexis Jordan	4				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Vladik Miagkostoupov	5	2			Eliminated
Shawn Ryan	6				Eliminated
J. R. Johns and His Best Friends	7				Eliminated
Hoopalicious	8			2	Eliminated
Corina Brouder	9				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
The Millers	10				Judges' choice

• ^2 Each respective judge meant to vote their disapproval for the corresponding performance, but accidentally voted the opposite.

Semi-final 2 (July 19)[]

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Jurassic 5

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (July 20)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
Dave the Horn Guy	1				Eliminated
Realis	2				Judges' choice
At Last	3				Won Public Vote
Natasha Le	4				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Vladimir Malachkin	5				Eliminated
Bobby Badfingers	6				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Sugar n' Spice	7				Eliminated
N'Versity	8		3		Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Mark Faje	9				Eliminated
Leonid the Magnificent	10				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)

• ^3 Norwood meant to vote her disapproval for this participant, but accidentally voted for the opposite.

Semi-final 3 (July 26)[]

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Cirque du Soleil

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (July 27)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
Team Acrodunk	1				Eliminated
Caitlyn Taylor Love	2				Eliminated
Sonia Lee	3				Eliminated
Elliot Zimet	4				Eliminated
Ten13 Concept	5				Eliminated
Rappin' Granny	6				Judges' choice
Nathan Burton	7				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Bianca Ryan	8				Won Public Vote
Kenny Shelton	9				Eliminated
Trey Knight's Stilt World	10				Eliminated

Semi-final 4 (August 2)[]

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Tom Green

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (August 3)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
The Passing Zone	1				Judges' choice
Celtic Spring	2				Won Public Vote
Sean and John	3				Eliminated
Lilia Stepanova	4				Eliminated
Dave Smith One Man Sideshow	5				Eliminated
David & Dania	6				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
George Komsky	7				Eliminated
Michelle L'amour	8				Eliminated
King Charles Unicycle Troupe	9				Eliminated
Desperation Squad	10				Eliminated

Semi-final 5 - Wildcard Round (August 9)[]

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Penn & Teller

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (August 10)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
Nathan Burton	1				Eliminated
Bobby Badfingers	2				Eliminated
Jessica Sanchez	3				Eliminated
All That	4				Judges' choice
Corina Brouder	5				Eliminated
David & Dania	6				Won Public Vote
N'Versity	7				Eliminated
Natasha Le	8				Eliminated
Alexis Jordan	9				Eliminated
Leonid the Magnificent	10				Eliminated

Final (August 16)[]

• Guest Performers, Results Show: Aly & AJ, and Blue Man Group

Judge Disapproved | Judge Approved

  Winner |   Runner-up

Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (August 17)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
At Last	1				Bottom 5
David & Dania	2				Bottom 5
Rappin' Granny	3				Bottom 5
Bianca Ryan	4				Winner
All That	5				Runner-up (2nd-3rd place) 4
Taylor Ware	6				Top 5
The Passing Zone	7				Bottom 5
Celtic Spring	8				Top 5
Realis	9				Bottom 5
The Millers	10				Runner-up (2nd-3rd place) 4

• ^4 Actual position these acts finished in was not disclosed by the program.

References[]