America's Got Talent is an American reality television series on the NBC television network. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of US$1 million. The show debuted in June 2006 for the summer television season.The show concept can be traced back to the British talent contest Opportunity Knocks, which started as a radio program in 1949 before moving to television in 1956. Among its significant features were that it gave an opportunity to talented amateurs or unknown performers, with the results decided by a public vote.
The format was sold by Simon Cowell after he originally produced the show that was to have been called Paul O'Grady's Got Talent but was postponed from 2005 until 2007, and when it was eventually launched in 2007 it was called, "Britain's Got Talent" due to the fact that Paul O'Grady defected from ITV to Channel 4. Unlike the British version, Cowell does not appear as a judge due to the conditions of his American Idol contract.
America's Got Talent began airing season one in the United Kingdom on ITV2 on 22 June 2007, TV3 Ireland on July 2007 and in New Zealand on Prime Television on 9 July 2007.
The third season premiered on June 17, 2008.
Credit to Wikipedia
