Update: America's Got Talent

Hey guys! So a couple of weeks ago in my update post, one of the things I said I wanted to do was a weekly review/recap of summer's #1 TV show, America's Got Talent. AGT is definitely one of my favorite shows on television and if you haven't seen it before, I highly recommend you check it out! It's a really fun show. We are currently in Season 11, it airs on NBC, and new episodes are on every Tuesday and Wednesday*.

*New episodes currently air only on Tuesdays and will begin Wednesdays when we reach the live shows.


We just finished the auditions last night and next week, the Judge Cuts will begin, which is when I will start doing my weekly recaps. But before I get into that, I'm just gonna talk about how AGT works in terms of each round leading up to the finals. We'll start with the auditions.


In the auditions round, everything is pretty straight forward. We have our host, Nick Cannon. Acts just simply go and perform in front of the four judges. The four judges are comedian Howie Mandel, Spice Girls singer Melanie Brown (known as Mel B), German model Heidi Klum, and record/television producer Simon Cowell (also known as a judge on Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor). Acts perform for the judges and each judge votes "yes" or "no" as to whether or not the act should be put through. An act must receive three yes' at minimum to move forward. Judges also have red buzzers which correspond to a big "X" in front of the judges' desk and right above the stage. If an act does not meet their standards, they can press their buzzer lighting up the "X" during the act. If an act receives all four X's, the act will be cut off and they are immediately eliminated from the competition.

Introduced in Season 9 was the "golden buzzer" and as of Season 10 and 11, each judge is allowed to use the golden buzzer once during the auditions to send an act straight through to the third round, which are the live shows, completely skipping the second round in the competition.

I think that's about it with the auditions, so I will move on to discuss the second round in the competition, the Judge Cuts.


The Judge Cuts started in Season 10, replacing Season 9's Judgment Week. Acts that made it through the auditions perform for the judges again and they make the decisions as to which acts can be put through to the live shows, which is Round 3 in the competition. Personally, the Judge Cuts round is probably my favorite round in the competition because of the biggest thing they added. In the Judge Cuts, there is a special guest judge. There are four weeks of Judge Cuts and four guest judges, so one joins the judging panel each week. Last year in Season 10, the four guest judges were:

• Neil Patrick Harris (actor, producer, singer, comedian, magician, and television host)
• Michael Bublé (singer, songwriter, and actor)
• Marlon Wayans (actor, comedian, and film producer)
• Piers Morgan (former AGT and BGT judge)

Basically, the guest judges simply help the regular judges decide who moves forward to the live shows. The regular judges still have their red buzzers for acts they disapprove of. Acts that receive four X's are eliminated immediately. However, each guest judge is given the golden buzzer to be pressed once to send an act they really like right to the live shows. This year in Season 11, the four guest judges are going to be:

• Reba McEntire (singer, songwriter, actress, and record/television producer)
• Ne-Yo (singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor)
• George Lopez (comedian and actor)
• Louis Tomlinson (One Direction singer, songwriter, and actor)

The Judge Cuts for this season (Season 11) do start next week and that is when I will start doing weekly recaps and reviews. Everything after the Judge Cuts are live shows at Radio City Music Hall, which is when America decides who goes through each round remaining by voting. Tuesday nights are the performances and Wednesday nights are the results.

Alright! So I do realize that I just threw a ton of information at you guys and I can understand if it's confusing in a way. However, those of you who do watch America's Got Talent I'm sure understand everything completely. But that was just a quick rundown of how AGT works. If you legit don't care about the show at all, you can just skip my recaps that I'll be doing every week starting next week. But I just wanted to give you guys an update on how and when I'll be recapping and reviewing AGT. That's all I have for you guys today.