America's Got Talent (season 2)

The second season of American talent show competition series America's Got Talent was broadcast on NBC from June 5 to August 21, 2007; the network originally intended for it to run during its winter schedule that year, but opted against it following concerns over it clashing with other major broadcasts at that time.^[1] In the wake of the success of the first season, additional episodes were commissioned by NBC, with production staff making changes to the program's format for the new season. These included the addition of a "bootcamp" stage of auditions, and amendments to the involvement of the judges and the use of their buzzers to match that with other editions across the Got Talent franchise, in particular the British edition after its first season.

While Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff returned as judges, Regis Philbin did not return as host for the new season and was replaced by tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer.^[2] Brandy Norwood was unable to return as a judge following the previous season, due to an ongoing lawsuit against her at the time,^[3][4] and was replaced by Sharon Osbourne as a result.^[5] The second season was won by singing ventriloquist and impressionist Terry Fator, with singer and guitarist Cas Haley finishing in second place, and singing beatboxer Butterscotch placing third.

Season overview[]

Both Jerry Springer and Sharon Osbourne were chosen as replacements for their respective roles by production staff prior to work beginning on the second season.

Following the success of the first season of America's Got Talent, NBC opted to commission further seasons of the program for its foreseeable future. As part of the network's original plan for the second season, the new episodes that were commissioned were intended for broadcast in the network's Winter 2007 schedule, with the results of each live round aired on the same day. However, executives and researchers raised concerns that such a decision would place America's Got Talent in a direct competition for viewing ratings with the sixth season of American Idol, due to aired around the same period. NBC eventually dropped the plan, and set the program up for its Summer schedule that year, allocating the arranged broadcasting slot to another of its talent shows.^[6]

The second season saw a considerable change in the format of the program to match a more standardized arrangement being used across the Got Talent franchise. The most notable change made was that the filmed auditions being split into two stages, with the first taking place across a selection of cities, and the second stage operating in Las Vegas under a "bootcamp" format and titled "Las Vegas Callbacks". The second stage's rules focused on those who made it through the first stage being placed into one of two groups - "music" and "variety" - and having to successfully impress the judges across two rounds of performances, each three minutes in length and conducted without interruptions from the judges. The other noted change was to incorporate the live round rules for judges used on other editions of Got Talent, particularly Britain's Got Talent: judges now primarily gave feedback on a performance when it had ended, but the public remained in control of who moved on to the next stage in the semi-finals; and performances could now be stopped with buzzers, much like in the auditions, although with participants given the courtesy of a little more time to perform before eventually stopping. Other than these changes, the second season did not incorporate the use of Wildcard acts, while the results for each live round, except the final, were each given before the start of the next round.

Auditions took place during Spring 2007, with the producer auditions conducted within the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas. Following the previous season, prior to filming taking place, production staff had to locate replacements amongst the stars that fronted the program - Regis Philbin decided not to return for undisclosed reasons, leading to Jerry Springer taking over as host of America's Got Talent;^[2] while Sharon Osbourne was brought in to replace Brandy Norwood, after she was forced to drop out due to a difficult legal matter she was dealing with.^[3][4]

Of the participants who auditioned for this season, 20 secured a place in the two live semi-finals, with 10 in each moving on to compete against each other in two knock-out finals before four were left to compete in a grand-final round. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this season:

  Winner |   Runner-up |   Third place |   Finalist |   Semi-finalist

Semi-finals summary[]

Buzzed out |   Advanced

Semi-final 1 (July 17)[]

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes			Result (July 24)
		Hasselhoff	Osbourne	Morgan
Johnny Lonestar	1				Eliminated
Julienne Irwin	2				Advanced
Kevin James	3				Eliminated
Robert Hatcher	4				Advanced
Jonny Come Lately	5				Eliminated
Kashif	6				Eliminated
Butterscotch	7				Advanced
Sideswipe	8				Advanced
Manuel Romero	9				Eliminated
The Glamazons	10				Advanced

Semi-final 2 (July 24)[]

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes			Result (July 31)
		Hasselhoff	Osbourne	Morgan
The 2nd Story Guys	1				Eliminated
Southern Girl	2				Eliminated
Popovich Comedy Pet Theater	3				Eliminated
Cas Haley	4				Advanced
Terry Fator	5				Advanced
The Fault Line	6				Eliminated
Boy Britney	7				Eliminated
Jason Pritchett	8				Advanced
The Calypso Tumblers	9				Advanced
The Duttons	10				Advanced

Finals summary[]

  Winner (Top 4 Final Only) |   Runner-up (Top 4 Final Only) |   3rd place (Top 4 Final Only)

  Advanced (Top 10 & 8 Finals only) |   Eliminated | Buzzed (Top 10 & 8 Finals only)

Finals - Top 10 (July 31)[]

Top 10 Finalist	Order	Buzzes			Result (August 7)
		Hasselhoff	Osbourne	Morgan
The Duttons	1				Eliminated
Robert Hatcher	2				Advanced
The Calypso Tumblers	3				Eliminated
Jason Pritchett	4				Advanced
Butterscotch	5				Advanced
The Glamazons	6				Advanced
Cas Haley	7				Advanced
Terry Fator	8				Advanced
Julienne Irwin	9				Advanced
Sideswipe	10				Advanced

Finals - Top 8 (August 7)[]

Top 8 Finalist	Order	Buzzes			Result (August 14)
		Hasselhoff	Osbourne	Morgan
Robert Hatcher	1				Eliminated
Julienne Irwin	2				Advanced
Terry Fator	3				Advanced
Cas Haley	4				Advanced
Jason Pritchett	5				Eliminated
The Glamazons	6				Eliminated
Butterscotch	7				Advanced
Sideswipe	8				Eliminated

Grand-final (August 14)[]

References[]