It does, honest! (America's Got Talent)

Member Name: LisaW82

Product:	America's Got Talent
Date:	03/06/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Odd balls galore

Disadvantages: No Ant and Dec

As a huge fan of Britain's Got Talent, I thought I really should check out the equivalent show from over the Atlantic, very cleverly titled America's Got Talent and I have to say that largely speaking I am glad I did. This is not because America has more talent, more that because America has more odd ball contestants.

Firstly, the similarities of the two shows are very obvious in the fact that they are talent shows that aim to find the best talent at that point in the country. The subtle difference comes in the prices really. In Britain's Got Talent the prize is £100,000 and the honour of performing at the Royal Variety Show later that year, whereas in the American show, the prize is simply to win $1,000,000. Now, call me cynical, but I don't believe the vast majority of the British contestants when they say it is all for the Royal Variety show. I personally believe that it is simply for the fame and money with a lot of them and for this reason the American show wins hands down for sheer size of the prize money.

I believe that the size of the prize on offer and the impending fame is the reason for the crazy characters that appear on both shows and this is more evident in America, by a long way. The jugglers are more daring, the singers are arguably better, the comedians are more off the wall, the magicians go from the sublime to the ridiculous and they even have the Knight Rider as a judge. Sure, we have Simon Cowell, but give me David Hasselhoff any day of the week. The other 2 judges on the show are Sharon Osbourne, who always seems painfully nice to even the worse acts, and Piers Morgan who we all know and love from our version. He seems a lot harsher on the American talent than he does over here and I like to see that. It causes much amusement with the live audience at the auditions.

The host in America has nothing on Ant and Dec though and in that respect Britain is far, far better. You just cannot beat the Geordie twosome in my opinion and America will just have to play second fiddle on that score.

As an overall package, I enjoy watching the British version more for Ant & Dec among other things, but the American show certainly has its share of good points, not least the wacky off the wall Americans themselves. If you haven't seen it yet, do give it a try.

Summary: Not as enjoyable as Britain, but certainly crazier