Host(s) Nick Cannon Genre(s) Singing | Broadcaster NBC | |
 | ||
Broadcast from May 31 – September 14, 2011 Judges Piers Morgan
Sharon Osbourne
Howie Mandel Origin Logan County, West Virginia | ||
Season six of America's Got Talent, a reality television series, premiered on May 31, 2011, on NBC. The show was hosted by Nick Cannon, while Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel returned as judges. On September 14, 2011, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. was announced as the winner of season six. This season was the last with Morgan as a judge, as he did not return for season 7, where Howard Stern replaced him.
Contents
- Preliminary auditions
- Las Vegas Week
- Selection and elimination
- Advanced
- Eliminated
- Group C Advanced directly to the Top 48
- Unknown decision
- Quarterfinals
- Top 48 week 1 July 1213
- Top 48 week 2 July 1920
- Top 48 week 3 July 2627
- Top 48 week 4 August 23
- YouTube Special August 910
- Wild Card Show August 1617
- Semifinals
- Round 1 August 2324
- Round 2 August 3031
- Top 10
- Finals
- Round chart
- Production
- References
Preliminary auditions
Televised auditions for season six were held in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Seattle, Minneapolis, and New York City. Non-televised producers' auditions were also held in Denver and Chicago. Previews of auditions were shown during NBC's The Voice premiere during April and May 2011. Piers Morgan was absent for the first aired half of the auditions held in Minneapolis, due to being caught in a blizzard.
For the second year, a separate auditions round was also held on YouTube, with twelve acts advancing to the quarterfinal round to compete with the Top 48.
Las Vegas Week
Immediately following the final auditions episode, the first episode of Las Vegas Week aired on Tuesday, July 5, 2011, for two hours. The episode achieved a 4.6 in the adults 18–49 demographic, tying a series record set by the show's world premiere in 2006.
The second part of Las Vegas Week aired on Wednesday, July 6, 2011, for one hour.
This year, acts that passed through to Las Vegas Week performed at the Planet Hollywood Casino and Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, the same venue that hosted America's Got Talent Live in 2009.
Selection and elimination
Similar to last season, the judges split all the acts into three groups. Those in Group A were referred to as "the judges' favorites", and performed on Day 1 of Las Vegas Week. Those in Group B were seen as less likely to advance by the judges, and were declared "standby acts." These acts perform for the remaining spots after Group A on Day 2. The auditions of the Group C acts were declared by the judges to be the best and these acts moved on to compete in the Top 48 directly without performing in Las Vegas.
This year, the judges could also eliminate any act immediately after their performance if they felt the audition was sub-standard. Any audition that was at this level is in italics.
Advanced
Eliminated
Advanced
Eliminated
Group C: Advanced directly to the Top 48
Unknown decision
These acts passed through the initial audition, but did not perform in Las Vegas due to personal reasons.
Quarterfinals
The Quarterfinals began on July 12, 2011, and ended on August 17, 2011, with the conclusion of the Wild Card results episode. This round includes the Top 48 acts which passed through Las Vegas Week, the acts that passed through the YouTube audition rounds, and a Wild Card show featuring previously eliminated quarterfinalists.
Top 48, week 1 (July 12–13)
Guests: Avril Lavigne, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Top 48, week 2 (July 19–20)
Guests: Hot Chelle Rae, TRACES
Top 48, week 3 (July 26–27)
Guests: Stevie Nicks, Fighting Gravity, The Smurfs
Top 48, week 4 (August 2–3)
Guests: Maroon 5, Jason Derülo
YouTube Special (August 9–10)
Guests: OK Go and Pilobolus, Keenan Cahill, Tay Zonday, Up and Over It (a YouTube act from Britain's Got Talent).
This special quarterfinal featured acts who submitted their auditions via YouTube.
Wild Card Show (August 16–17)
This year, the Wild Cards were selected by the judges with input from an online audience on the show's website, although it was up to producers to decide whether the public audience's opinion was necessary.
All five acts that were not picked in the judges choice have been invited back to the wild card show.
Guests: Colbie Caillat, Les Misérables
Semifinals
The semifinals of season six of America's Got Talent began on August 23, 2011, and concluded on August 31, 2011. At this stage of the competition, 24 acts that advanced past the quarterfinals performed live for a viewers' and judges' votes. Also, in this round, five acts advanced instead of four.
Round 1 (August 23–24)
Guests: Demi Lovato, Prince Poppycock, New Boyz
Round 2 (August 30–31)
Guests: David Guetta, Flo Rida, Nicki Minaj, Susan Boyle
Top 10
The Top 10 round consisted of two episodes in one week. The performance episode aired on September 6, 2011, and the results episode concluded on September 7, 2011. The performance show featured an appearance from season five winner Michael Grimm. The results show featured performances by Il Divo.
Finals
The finals of season six took place over two nights. The one-hour performance episode aired on September 13, 2011, and featured a performance from season two winner Terry Fator.
The two-hour finale aired on September 14, 2011, featuring special performances from many guest performers, including Def Leppard, OneRepublic, a duet with Tony Bennett and Queen Latifah, the cast of Cirque du Soleil's Iris, and season five runner-up Jackie Evancho. It also included celebrity-contestant duet performances. Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. performed with Patti Labelle, Team iLuminate with Cobra Starship, the Silhouettes with LeAnn Rimes, and POPLYFE with Stevie Wonder.
The performance show was watched by 13.67 million viewers, and the finale achieved 14.37 million viewers. In its last half-hour, the AGT final had 16.56 million viewers. The combined two-night final was watched by an average of 14.02 million viewers. Even though down from last year's finale, AGT notably rated higher than the 23rd-season premiere of CBS's hit reality series Survivor: South Pacific.
This was the season's only live show without any intentional buzzes.
Round chart
The following is the list of the 48 quarterfinalists who passed through Las Vegas Week, the 12 contestants that were picked from a separate circuit of YouTube auditions, and one Wild Card Act who was originally eliminated in Las Vegas.
Italic indicates the act was picked from a YouTube audition and was not featured in the preliminary auditions or Las Vegas Week; therefore, the quarterfinals were their debut to the competition.
Production
On July 27, 2010, Piers Morgan announced that he had signed a three-year contract with the show, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The show's taping began in March 2011 and all of the judges were present which confirmed that all three judges, as well as host Nick Cannon, were returning. However, in November 2011, Morgan announced that he would not be returning to the show, due to him focusing on his CNN show, Piers Morgan Tonight.
NBC started promos for the show during the premiere of The Voice on April 26, also noting a change in some of the color schemes in the logo with the United States in the foreground. The judge's desk is converted to be more like that of Britain's Got Talent with a three-dimensional "X".
On May 16, 2011, Mandel had a television appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where he talked about the show. Mandel described the show as the most dangerous. During the interview, he said that the ambulance came to the set about six times to care for some of the injured contestants.
This year, the show generally carried over its format from the previous season. The auditions process and Las Vegas Week were unchanged, while the live shows, which consisted of multiple rounds of quarterfinals (including two special weeks for YouTube acts and "Wild Card" performers), two weeks of semifinals, and two subsequent final rounds, had only minor changes from season five.