Q&A Hollywood
Q: How many hosts have they had on “America’s Got Talent”? It seems like they change every season.
A: It only seems like they change hosts every season, probably because the show’s so breezy and quick — it sweeps into our lives at the end of spring and is gone before the summer is over.
That said, there certainly have been a lot of hosts — five of them across 15 seasons.
Hosting institution Regis Philbin started the cavalcade when the show launched in 2006. But he was gone by Season 2, when a different sort of hosting great stepped in — Jerry Springer. He lasted two seasons before passing the mic to the longest-standing host, actor-rapper-comedian Nick Cannon.
Eight seasons later, Cannon gave way to supermodel and reality host Tyra Banks, who did two seasons before actor and retired football player Terry Crews stepped in. And that’s where we are today.
Neither Crews nor NBC has made any statements about his future beyond the current season (his second), but if he signs on for just one more, he becomes the second-longest host in the show’s history, though he’s a long way from Cannon.
It’s worth noting that this revolving door for hosts is not a necessary part of the format. “Britain’s Got Talent” (which was supposed to come first but was delayed and didn’t debut until 2007) has had the same two hosts since it began — popular TV duo Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, better known (to Brits, at least) as Ant & Dec.
Q: Over the years and every now and then, “Showtime at the Apollo”
is televised. Is there a chance it might make a comeback this year?
A: Because of its somewhat unusual production process, there’s always a chance with “Showtime at the Apollo,” but at the moment it’s not a good chance.
The variety-competition show had an incredible 21year run in syndication, from 1987 to 2008, had a brief revival on BET in the early 2010s, and then an evenbriefer revival on Fox in 2018. That Fox revival was cancelled after a season, and there are no plans for yet another resurrection (at least not so far).
But you can never count “Showtime at the Apollo” out, because it has a fanbase (as proven by the two revivals and by your question) and because it’s cheap to make. If someone wants to revive it, they really just have to pay for the cameras — the show’s always happening.
Well, it’s not quite that simple. “Showtime at the
Apollo” grew out of the amateur-night competitions that have been happening weekly at Harlem’s Apollo Theater since 1934. The TV series used that as a pool of talent, used the theater and its famously active crowd as the backdrop, and basically recreated the amateur nights for the camera.
Amateur Night at the Apollo is still going on (or at least it will be once the temporary pandemic break is over), which means there’s no shortage of talent. And speaking of talent, Steve Harvey, who hosted the most recent TV series, could presumably still squeeze it into his schedule (the tireless star can always seem to squeeze in one more show).
But at the moment, there are no plans to do so.You can still catch reruns streaming online, but that’s it.
Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town. Personal replies will not be provided.