I didn’t always feel this way about the show, which has been wildly uneven over the years as it has gone through many different judges and hosts, more so than any other reality competition program that I can name. But it finally settled a few years back on a foursome I would define as the best panel of judges on any such show ever. The four-way chemistry between Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Simon Cowell (pictured below left to right) is as golden as the coveted buzzer (visible in photo) the judges occasionally slam when they decide to allow an especially talented act to leap from the first round of auditions to the live shows. I have liked this group from the start, but as they have continued to work together and bond they have become as watchable and welcome as the Simon Cowell-Paula Abdul-Randy Jackson triumvirate on the early (and best) seasons of American Idol … but without the looney tunes that trio brought to the party every week.
"America's Got Talent" and Simon Cowell Get Better with Age
Publish date
July 03, 2018 (ET)Channel
TV / Video DownloadEvery summer I write a column in praise of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, calling it the most reliably entertaining of all the original series with which the broadcast networks wisely fill their schedules between Memorial Day and the start of the “traditional television season” (an increasingly antiquated term) in mid-September. But as the years and seasons go by -- and as the show defies the trajectory of virtually all such reality competition shows by actually improving with age -- I’m going to amend my annual rave and instead refer to AGT as one of the best shows on television, period.