America's Got Talent is a British-owned 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. Starting in the third season, the Talent top prize included US$1 million, payable in a financial annuity over forty years (or the present cash value of such annuity), and a show as the headliner on the Las Vegas Strip.
The show concept can be traced back to the American talent contest Major Bowes Amateur Hour, broadcast in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. Among its significant features were that it gave an opportunity to talented amateurs or unknown performers, with the results decided by an audience vote. The format is a popular one and has often been reworked for television in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The current incarnation was created by Simon Cowell, and was originally due to be a 2005 British series called Paul O'Grady's Got Talent but was postponed due to O'Grady's acrimonious split with broadcaster ITV. As such, the American version became the first full series of the Got Talent franchise.
Despite being heavily involved in the show's production, Simon Cowell does not appear as a judge. This is due to the conditions of his American Idol contract. However he does appear as a judge on Britain's Got Talent. America's Got Talent began airing season one in the United Kingdom on ITV1 on 22 June 2007, TV3 Ireland on July 2007 and in New Zealand on Prime Television on 9 July 2007. The third season of Talent premiered on ITV2 beginning 4 June 2009.
