‘Bigger and better’
‘Canada’s Got Talent’ million-dollar season has Howie Mandel buzzing
As “Canada’s Got Talent” returns for its third season, judge Howie Mandel is certain of one thing: this will be the biggest edition in the global franchise’s history.
“It’s back bigger and better than ever,” Mandel, 68, tells Postmedia News in a video call from Los Angeles. “It’s a million dollars now.”
Not only is the winning act going to take home a million dollars, this year’s Golden Buzzer performers who go straight through to the semifinal round will pocket $25,000.
“This is bigger than ‘America’s Got Talent’ or any of the other ‘Got Talents’ around the world. You can win more money and it puts you on a world stage,” Mandel says.
Since its launch in 2006, regional versions of Simon Cowell’s hit talent show have appeared in 75 territories with more than one billion viewers watching the show globally.
This season’s “Got Talent” acts appeared in front of Mandel — and his fellow judges, comedian, actress and writer Lilly Singh, former WWE star Trish Stratus and musician Kardinal Offishall — during auditions that took place in Niagara Falls, Ont., last fall and earlier this winter with Lindsay Ell hosting.
Mandel, a standup star in his own right who appeared on the hospital drama “St. Elsewhere” in the 1980s as well as the game show “Deal Or No Deal” has been judging on NBC’S “AGT” for the past 15 seasons. But after a one-season edition that aired in 2012 with actor Martin Short, opera singer Measha Brueggergosman and musician Stephan Moccio judging, Mandel yearned to see a homegrown iteration return to the air.
“To be on a world stage launching from Canada is the reason I want to be involved,” he says. “I started in Canada and I’ve always resented the fact that I had to leave Canada to go make a name for myself.”
Last month, Mandel won the inaugural season of “AGT’S” Fantasy League spinoff when his pick, The Ramadhani Brothers, won the coveted title.
“It was more than just judging,” he said of the series that saw him compete against teams put together by Simon Cowell, Mel B, and Heidi Klum. “We were competing. My happy place is competing. I would do anything to win, and I did do anything to win and I won.”
Fantasy League, which saw the famed “AGT” judges competing against one another, hasn’t yet been renewed for a second season, but Mandel expects the offshoot to return.
“There’s nothing in writing. I know that it did well and I know it was well received ... I’ll be there if they want me,” he says.
In the meantime, Mandel is happy to be back on home soil as new episodes of “CGT” are set to air Tuesdays ahead of a two-hour finale on May 14.
“Each season sets a bar. People can see what other people can do, they get ideas and are inspired and then they show up doing something bigger and better and something we’ve never seen before,” Mandel says.
That proved true this season as he watched 116 musical, dance, comedy and novelty acts walk across the stage in front of him.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and I kind of show up thinking, ‘I’ve seen everything,’ and it is the most exciting thing to see something done in a way that you wouldn’t expect. People are going to be surprised, people are going to be excited, people are going to be proud, and one act is going to walk away with a million dollars.”