America's Got Talent (season 1)

Both Brandy Norwood and Regis Philbin fronted AGT for the first season only.

In 2005, Simon Cowell devised plans for a televised talent competition, originally intending for it be created and broadcast in Britain through the British broadcaster ITV, with an American edition to follow after its first season. However, following a pilot broadcast of the format, a dispute arose between ITV and Paul O'Grady, the originally intended host of Britain's Got Talent.[2] In the wake of the dispute, after O'Grady decided to sign on to another network, Cowell suspended production on the British edition, and instead focused on the American edition in 2006. His proposal for his program in America was bought by NBC, who commissioned a small season of episodes, with Cowell working alongside Freemantle with his own company Syco Entertainment. Production staff launched open auditions across the United States at this time, while they subsequently searched for and chose those who would front the program in the required roles - while Regis Philbin was picked as the host,[3] the judging panel featured the involvement of David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood, and Piers Morgan.[4] After the open auditions had been completed, those who had been nominated for the program were entered into more an extensive round of major auditions, with these being filmed and taking place across three major cities in April 2006 - Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

The format used in the first season of America's Got Talent for live rounds differed greatly to what would later be used in both later seasons of the program and other international editions of the Got Talent franchise. Although the concept of airing the Results episode after a Performance episode on a different day would be retained in later seasons, the format of semi-final rounds and the final itself mainly had judges making votes about each performance pertaining to whether they approved or disapproved of an act, with no use of a buzzer to stop a performance at any times. The first season did incorporate the use of round for Wildcard acts for the contest, though a considerable number could be selected from any semi-final that they had been eliminated from, unlike in later seasons were the format was used. In the first season, the format's use was defined by the rule that the judges could each select two eliminated semi-finalists from any semi-final, while the public could choose one from each round.

Of the participants who auditioned for this season, 40 secured a place in the semi-finals, with ten appearing in each one, and eight of these acts making it into the live final. Around ten of the semi-finalists who didn't advance were chosen by the judges to compete within a WildCard round, and secured two additional places in the final. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this season:

  Winner |   Runner-Up |   Finalist |   Semi-finalist

• ^1 These participants were entered into the Wildcard semi-final, after losing their initial semi-final.

Semi-final 1 (July 12)

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Teddy Geiger

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (July 13)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
Taylor Ware	1				Won Public Vote
All That	2				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Kevin Johnson	3				Eliminated
Alexis Jordan	4				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Vladik Miagkostoupov	5	2			Eliminated
Shawn Ryan	6				Eliminated
J. R. Johns and His Best Friends	7				Eliminated
Hoopalicious	8			2	Eliminated
Corina Brouder	9				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
The Millers	10				Judges' choice

• ^2 Each respective judge meant to vote their disapproval for the corresponding performance, but accidentally voted the opposite.

Semi-final 2 (July 19)

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Jurassic 5

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (July 20)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
Dave the Horn Guy	1				Eliminated
Realis	2				Judges' choice
At Last	3				Won Public Vote
Natasha Le	4				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Vladimir Malachkin	5				Eliminated
Bobby Badfingers	6				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Sugar n' Spice	7				Eliminated
N'Versity	8				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Mark Faje	9				Eliminated
Leonid the Magnificent	10				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)

Semi-final 3 (July 26)

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Cirque du Soleil

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (July 27)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
Team Acrodunk	1				Eliminated
Caitlyn Taylor Love	2				Eliminated
Sonia Lee	3				Eliminated
Elliot Zimet	4				Eliminated
Ten13 Concept	5				Eliminated
Rappin' Granny	6				Judges' choice
Nathan Burton	7				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
Bianca Ryan	8				Won Public Vote
Kenny Shelton	9				Eliminated
Trey Knight's Stilt World	10				Eliminated

Semi-final 4 (August 2)

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Tom Green

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (August 3)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
The Passing Zone	1				Judges' choice
Celtic Spring	2				Won Public Vote
Sean and John	3				Eliminated
Lilia Stepanova	4				Eliminated
Dave Smith One Man Sideshow	5				Eliminated
David & Dania	6				Eliminated (Chosen for Wildcard Round)
George Komsky	7				Eliminated
Michelle L'amour	8				Eliminated
King Charles Unicycle Troupe	9				Eliminated
Desperation Squad	10				Eliminated

Semi-final 5 - Wildcard Round (August 9)

• Guest Performer, Results Show: Penn & Teller

Semi-Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (August 10)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
Nathan Burton	1				Eliminated
Bobby Badfingers	2				Eliminated
Jessica Sanchez	3				Eliminated
All That	4				Judges' choice
Corina Brouder	5				Eliminated
David & Dania	6				Won Public Vote
N'Versity	7				Eliminated
Natasha Le	8				Eliminated
Alexis Jordan	9				Eliminated
Leonid the Magnificent	10				Eliminated

Final (August 16)

• Guest Performers, Results Show: Aly & AJ, and Blue Man Group

Judge Disapproved | Judge Approved

  Winner |   Runner-up

Finalist	Order	Judges' Vote			Results (August 17)
		Hasselhoff	Norwood	Morgan
At Last	1				Bottom 5
David & Dania	2				Bottom 5
Rappin' Granny	3				Bottom 5
Bianca Ryan	4				Winner
All That	5				Runner-up (2nd-3rd place) 3
Taylor Ware	6				Top 5
The Passing Zone	7				Bottom 5
Celtic Spring	8				Top 5
Realis	9				Bottom 5
The Millers	10				Runner-up (2nd-3rd place) 3

• ^3 Actual position these acts finished in was not disclosed by the program.

• Official website
• America's Got Talent (Season 1) at IMDb
• America's Got Talent (Season 1) at TV.com