No one knows how to stop hit ‘ America’s Got Talent’
This season of “America’s Got Talent” has featured a rat that can navigate a New York cityscape, 76 Texas high- schoolers who kick as high as an oil derrick and a couple that throws knives at each other while singing opera.
But the most impressive feat for NBC’s amateur competition series has little to do with the performers: It’s that 10 million people regularly watch it.
Broadcast ratings tend to plummet in summer as fewer Americans stay home to watch TV. CBS’s muchhyped “Love Island,” starring beautiful strangers engaged in romantic melodrama, never managed to reach 3 million viewers for any episode this summer.
Yet “Talent,” which begins its popular live- show episodes this week, flies in the face of much of what experts know about the modern television business. Adding to the achievement, much of the audience is in the coveted 18- 49 demographic and also clicks on YouTube performances in massive numbers.
“I’m not sure what to say,” said Howie Mandel, a longtime “Talent” judge, when asked for theories about the show’s popularity. “I guess viewers just like seeing ordinary people do extraordinary things.”
How the show has become a juggernaut is one of the entertainment world’s biggest puzzles. And no other network is sure how to solve it.
“You’re never going to beat it. But we still try every year,” said an executive at another network who spoke on condition of anonymity.
If you’re not familiar, “America’s Got Talent” is a vintage talent show done up with “American Idol”- style judging. It involves a host of acts — magic, singing, dancing, comedy — that compete in various rounds, with the goal of advancing to the liveshow episodes in August and September. The winner nabs $ 1 million ( paid over 40 years) and performs at a variety show in Las Vegas.
A few have gone to bigger stages, such as magician Shin Lim, last season’s winner, who has since headlined a show in Vegas and appeared on Broadway. Recording stars are rarer.
Backstories are often highlighted. This year, one of the acts to make to the live show is Voices of Service, an a capella group of military veterans who sing covers of Kleenex- yankers like Charlie Puth’s “See You Again.”
The show was created by Simon Cowell, who launched a “Got Talent” franchise that would originate on the U. S. airwaves and eventually be exported to dozens of countries. The show began as an also- ran of sorts on NBC in 2006, with a judging panel that included Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff. But “Talent’s” first- ever episode nabbed 12 million viewers.
This season, “Talent” has averaged nearly 10 million viewers in its two- hour Tuesday slot. Since it debuted in May, it’s been the top show of the night nearly every time it’s aired.