Canada's Got Talent

Auditions

The auditions took place in front of the judges and a live audience at different cities across Canada. At any time during the audition, the judges may have shown their disapproval to the act by pressing a buzzer which lights a large red "X" on the stage. If all the judges pressed their buzzers, the act must end. Voting worked on a majority-of-two basis where two positive votes from the judges were required.

The Cutdown

Those that were accepted past the audition round moved on to the Judges Round (also known as "The Cutdown"). This stage of the competition did not feature any audiences and only contained contestants performing in front of the judges. Out of all that made it to this point, thirty-six (36) acts made it through to the next round which was the semi-finals.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals and final were broadcast with a varying number of semi-finals, followed by the one final split into two episodes over one night. The remaining acts performed across a number of semi-finals, with the two most popular acts from each semi-final winning a position in the final. Judges may still end a performance early with three X's. The judges were again asked to express their views on each act's performance. After all acts have performed, phone lines, Twitter, Facebook, text and online voting platforms opened for a one hour, while the public voted for the act they think were the best. Voters could submit a total of 50 votes (10 in each platform). After the votes were counted, the act that has polled the highest number of public votes automatically was placed in the final. The judges then chose between the second and third most popular acts, with the winner of that vote also gaining a place in the final. All other acts were then eliminated from the competition.

Broadcasting

Because of the various time zones in Canada, only viewers in the provinces and territories east of Manitoba saw the show live (in the Newfoundland, Atlantic and Eastern time zones); all other areas in Canada broadcast the show on a tape delay basis. All Citytv stations aired the show at 8:00 p.m. (in each time zone where there is a Citytv station) with the Toronto station airing the program at 8:00 p.m.; viewers in Newfoundland see the show live at 9:30 p.m. and viewers in the Atlantic region at 9:00 p.m., because there is no Citytv station in these provinces to broadcast the show at local time. The same process occurred with the results show.

Judges

Comedian and actor Martin Short was announced as the first judge on October 13, 2011. On October 17, opera singer Measha Brueggergosman and musician/composer Stephan Moccio were announced as the two judges who would be joining Short at the table. Citytv Toronto personality and Breakfast Television host, Dina Pugliese, was the host of the show.

Season overview

The first season of Canada's Got Talent, a reality television series, premiered on March 4, 2012, and ended on May 14, 2012, on City. Unlike America's Got Talent, the show only had the audition round, top 37, semi-finals, and then the finale. The premiere episode, which aired March 4, 2012, took in a viewership of 2 million on average throughout the night, a record for Citytv.

Preliminary Auditions

Canada's Got Talent travelled to six different cities across the country for the producer auditions: Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Halifax during the months of September and October 2011.

After the final auditions were completed in Halifax, the show then travelled to Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg, Halifax and Montreal for the live-audience auditions which were taped in October, November, December 2011 and January 2012.

A total of 244 acts were given a "yes" during the auditions. A total of 108 auditions were aired on television (both eliminated acts and successful acts).

Toronto auditions

During the season premiere of the show / first part of the Toronto Auditions (March 4, 2012), 9 acts made it to the next round while 5 were eliminated.

During the second part of the Toronto Auditions (March 18, 2012), 12 acts made it to the next round while 4 were eliminated.

Calgary auditions

During the Calgary Auditions (March 5, 2012), 9 acts made it to the next round while 10 were eliminated.

Vancouver auditions

During the first part of the Vancouver Auditions (March 11, 2012), 9 acts made it to the next round while 4 were eliminated.

During the second part of the Vancouver Auditions (March 18, 2012), 4 acts made it to the next round while 1 was eliminated. Act number 18 (Rick Faraci) was originally eliminated from the competition but later was granted to move on to the next round. See 'Footnotes' for more details.

Winnipeg auditions

During the Winnipeg Auditions (March 11, 2012), 12 acts made it to the next round while 7 were eliminated.

Halifax auditions

During the Halifax Auditions (March 18, 2012), 7 acts made it the next round while 1 was eliminated.

Montreal auditions

During the Montreal Auditions (March 25, 2012), 11 acts made it to the next round while 3 were eliminated.

Youtube auditions

During December 2011, numerous people auditioned for Canada's Got Talent over YouTube. Canadians were able to vote on the top 20 videos for about 2 weeks. The person who received the most votes was revealed on Tuesday April 3, 2012, and joined the competition. Also, the judges chose one out of two people that received the second and third highest amount of votes to also join the competition. Caitlin Bell received the most votes while Mathew Cathcart "The Emsee" was chosen by the judges to join the competition.

Judges Round

Those that were accepted past the audition round moved on to the Judges Round (also known as "The Cutdown"). This stage of the competition did not feature any audiences and only contained contestants walking up to the judges or Dina (host) to find out if they made it to the next round. Originally, out of all that made it to this point, thirty-six (36) acts were to make it through to the next round which would be the semi-finals but because the judges "broke a rule" the final number of semi-finalists were thirty-seven (37). During the episode, it was announced that 244 acts were given a "yes" during the auditions meaning that 207 were eliminated (some of these auditions were not shown on television).

Below is the list of thirty-seven (37) semi-finalists in no set order. Note that some of the acts below may have not been aired on television.

Semi-finals

At this point in the competition, the selected thirty-seven acts will perform in front of an audience and the judges. The semi-finals will contain six or seven acts per week for six weeks with the day after being the results show. Each week, out of the acts that perform, only two will make it to the finals. To determine who moves to the finals, viewer's at home will select one act and the judges will select the other.

Broadcasting

Because of the various time zones in Canada, only viewers in the provinces and territories east of Manitoba see the show live (in the Newfoundland, Atlantic and Eastern time zones). All other areas in Canada are taped and even though the show does mention the show is live, it is not. All Citytv stations air the show at 8:00 pm (in each time zone where there is a CityTV station) with the Toronto station being the first CityTV station to reach 8:00 pm. So viewers in Newfoundland see the show live at 9:30 pm and viewers in the Atlantic at 9:00 pm because there is no CityTV station in these provinces to broadcast the show at local time. The same process occurs with the results show. Also, the semi-finals are filmed at Showline Studios in Toronto.

Week 1 (April 2–3, 2012)

Freshh (who received the most votes to move onto the finals) and Julie Lafontaine (who the judges picked to move onto the finals) made it to the finals out of the 7 performers during Week 1. Also, Caitlin Bell and Mathew Cathcart "The Emsee" were the two YouTube auditions that joined the competition.

Week 2 (April 8–9, 2012)

Angry Candy (who received the most votes to move onto the finals) and Scott Jackson (who the judges picked to move onto the finals) made it to the finals out of the 7 performers during Week 2. Also, none of the judges buzzed for any of the acts during the entire show.

Week 3 (April 15–16, 2012)

Shale Wagman (who received the most votes to move onto the finals) and Emilio Fina (who the judges picked to move onto the finals) made it to the finals out of the 7 performers during Week 3. Also, one of the two YouTube auditions that the judges picked in Week 1 of the semi-finals, Caitlin Bell, performed but was eliminated from the competition during the result show.

Week 4 (April 22–23, 2012)

Ivan Daigle (who received the most votes to move onto the finals) and Mathew Cathcart "The Emsee" (who the judges picked to move onto the finals) made it to the finals out of the 6 performers during Week 4. Mathew was the Judge's pick from all the YouTube auditions to compete in the Semi-Finals announced during Week 1 of the results show. Also, none of the judges buzzed for any of the acts during the entire show.

Week 5 (April 29–30, 2012)

Sagkeeng's Finest (who received the most votes to move onto the finals) and Terry Im "KRNFX" (who the judges picked to move onto the finals) made it to the finals out of the 6 performers during Week 5. Also, Stephan Moccio performed one of his songs during the results show.

Week 6 (May 6–7, 2012)

Broken Dance (who received the most votes to move onto the finals) and Aygul Memet (who the judges picked to move onto the finals) made it to the finals out of the 6 performers during Week 6. Also, Measha Brueggergosman performed one of her songs during the results show. None of the judges buzzed any of the acts during Week 6.

Finals

Only 12 acts made it to this point in the competition. After all the acts performed in the two-hour special on May 13, 2012, Canada voted for their favourite, and the winner of Canada's Got Talent's first season was crowned on May 14, 2012, on the finale of the show. The winner received a brand-new Nissan GT-R, possibly a performance in Las Vegas, a spot on Citytv's 2013 New Year's Eve Bash and $100,000 in Canadian currency.

The youngest platinum-selling recording artist in history, Jackie Evancho, who was a finalist on Season 5 of America's Got Talent, sang the Sarah McLachlan song "Angel" as a guest artist on the season finale on May 14. Canadian rock band Hedley performed the song "Beautiful" from their album Storms.

Sagkeeng’s Finest received the most votes from Canada, winning the first season of Canada's Got Talent.

Production

On May 30, 2011, Citytv and Insight Production announced that they would create a Canadian series of the hit Got Talent series and that the show would begin in Spring 2012.

The stage for Canada's Got Talent is almost exactly the same used on Britain's Got Talent; the only difference being that the stage isn't full of moving LED lights in Canada.

On October 13, 2011, it was announced that Martin Short would become one of three judges for the show. Four days later, Stephan Moccio and Measha Brueggergosman were confirmed to be the other two judges for the show. On the same day, Dina Pugliese was also announced to be the host for Canada's Got Talent.