What Is The Format Of ‘AGT: The Champions’ Going To Be? The Judges Explain!
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America’s Got Talent: The Champions is just around the corner and we’ve found out a few key things about how the show is going to go down!
As we’ve previously discussed, the judges will remain the same as the last three normal AGT seasons, Terry Crews will serve as host, and there will be seven episodes overall. But let’s dive into the specifics of how the competition will work with this video posted on the AGT Facebook page!
Wow! That was certainly a lot to unpack from such a short video. Let’s break it all down!
The Format
While there are no real “auditions” this season, contestants will begin their journey as the titular Champions as one of ten acts in an episode…and the vast majority of them will end there as well, seeing as only two acts from each qualifier will advance to the finals. This is an all-star season, so the acts will have to bring their A-game right out of the gate, and even then there’s still an 80% chance they won’t make it past round one.
The Golden Buzzer
Yes, the golden buzzer is in play on Champions, which seems strange for an all-star season but I suppose it’ll make for some good viral videos. As usual, the power of the golden buzzer is to automatically advance an act to the next round. There will be one golden buzzer given out in each episode of the first round. So it’ll be similar to how it comes into play in the Judge Cuts round on a regular season.
The Super-Fans
I originally predicted the studio audience would vote during each episode to determine who would move forward, but it looks like I was wrong about that. Instead, a group of so-called “secret super-fans” from all 50 states in the studio audience vote during each taping and the one act that gets the most votes from them moves forward (along with whoever the golden buzzer recipient is that week).
I have to say, this is one of the weirdest voting methods I’ve ever heard of for a reality show. I don’t quite understand why they’re needlessly complicating things with the voting instead of just having everyone in the live audience vote to determine who gets sent through. I’m guessing they wanted to cover all different demographics, but it’s still pretty strange.
Even with the…unusual ways of determining the finalists, it’s going to be so cool seeing so many of our favorite acts all on the show again together. Be sure to check back for more updates as we gear up for America’s Got Talent: The Champions, premiering Monday, January 7 at 8/7c on NBC!