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So has Australia really Got Talent?

Now in its third year, what's happened to the winners of Seven's variety competition, and should we start to think about retitling the show?

agt1Seven’s new variety series Australia’s Got Talent returned to screens last night.

Last year the show averaged 1.53m viewers -the highest average for any light entertainment series in 2008.

Now in its third season, and again hosted by Grant Denyer, it’s on the hunt for somebody with that special something. Unlike Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, it welcomes them all: magicians, jugglers, whistlers, gum-leaf players, contortionists, dance troupes, drag queens, woodchoppers. All ages, shapes and sizes are embraced by its vaudevillian format.

But unlike TEN reality shows, AGT is yet to create a household name. With two seasons under its belt, could it soon be time to retitle the show ‘Australia’s Got Talent?’

A Seven spokesperson told TV Tonight that whilst series one winner singer Bonnie Anderson had returned to school studies and was saving her $250,000 winnings, series two champ teenage guitarist ‘Smokin’ Joe Robinson went to Tennessee to record an album and has toured with Tommy Emmanuel.

There are also regular corporate enquiries for series one’s quick change act Soul Mystique. Another finalist headed off to a dance academy in the USA. As with Idol, sometimes there are others who can find a leg-up in a show biz career.

Meanwhile, UK winners Opera singer Paul Potts has sold over 2 million albums, and dancer George Sampson has performed in Royal Variety Performances and West End musicals. US winners Bianca Ryan, another child singer, has charted on Billboard, while ventriloquist Terry Fator has headlined in Las Vegas, as has opera singer Neal E. Boyd.

Last year Australian Idol, produced by FremantleMedia, took steps to address concerns its winners were fading too fast and neglecting to live up to the title of the show.

It added a form of “scholarship” to support and finance the winner in their first year. FremantleMedia also produces the Talent series for Seven. So far it is yet to see a winner or even a runner up who has resonated in the public’s mind beyond the life of the series. With a premise of discovering talent that’s not the most ideal of outcomes.

Here’s hoping 2009 is a year to change all that.

Australia’s Got Talent airs 7:30pm Wednesdays on Seven.

20 Responses

  1. Watched the show last night for the last time. Three freckled frogs as judges allows a guy dressed up as Freddo doing some balancing tricks to go into the final. While one act was performing one freckled frog turned into a red bull frog and leaped off during the performance. How insulting! the way this red bull frog danced in ‘Dancing With The Stars’ maybe the judges should have told him to go back home to his pond. Kermit the compare and his freckled frogs can’t be taking this show seriously, give the prize money to the Victorian Bush Fire Appeal if no one is capable of recognising true talent.

  2. First episode wasnt bad, that JP guy looks like a genuine star, great voice, great guitar playing, charismatic, handsome. and what a brilliant rendition of a very dated song ‘down under’

    And the 15 year old opera singer wasnt bad either. The rest of the acts make for some very entertaining TV apparantly with australias got talent winning the rating war on wednesday with a peak of 1.6 million viewers!

  3. I watched it for the first time the other day and wasn’t really blown away as such with the talent.

    To tell the truth I’d rather have it more like an organic process like Idol, where you get to see auditions and then after all the cities, you get to see the shows.

    The constant shots of Denyer during audiences weren’t that great either.

    I liken this to Red Faces and we didn’t see Daryl every five seconds during the acts.

    I’m not sure if I’ll watch again.

  4. I don’t think the show was developed with the intention for performers to score record contracts and commitments after the show. It’s a light entertainment show to showcase some of the best and sometimes worse talents the country has on offer. If anything, it would be up to the contestants to try and make something of the opportunity and exposure. At the end of the day along with Celebrity Singing Bee it’s a great family/variety entertainment – more variety on TV along with great Australian drama’s is what we need more of.

  5. I agree with Chris, that whole thing of the camera going to the host during the act came from Britains Got Talent where it crosses to a shot of Ant & Dec who host the British version, the only problem being, Ant & Dec are actually funny unlike Grant Denyer, so it falls a bit flat here when all it keeps doing is crossing to a shot of Grant Denyer pulling a goofy face or rolling his eyes

  6. Soul Mystique did a commercial for Campbell’s soup, does that count?

    What I find infuriating when watching this show is the constant interruptions of the acts with shots of Grant Denyer smiling or making some inane comment. I just want to watch the alleged talent! I don’t care for Denyer’s need for continual presence on my screen.

  7. The show is good, but last year, far too many made it past the heats, and due to culling, didn’t get a showing as a semi-finalist. They should have had enough semi-final shows to fit all successful heat acts in, or they should be stricker in the heats and X more of them. Go Red, go!!.

  8. Australia’s got no taste!

    Looks like they put too many people meters into nursing homes and hid the remote behind a picture of Ray Martin.

    Without them this show wouldn’t return.

  9. I remember when it was just called it Red Faces!

    It’s light entertainment and easy to watch, especially for the older crowd and that seem to lap it up. I don’t think anyone takes this seriously as a search for real talent .

    Our version does seem embarrassing compared to genuine stars overseas versions seem to dig up. But I doubt audiences really care – they just want to be entertained for a few minutes.

  10. i’ve always thought this show was underestimated, it’s the perfect definition of light, innocent entertainment. it sure does put other shows of its genre to shame, wipeout much?

    but you have to enjoy it for what it is, entertainment, its not the singing /dancing olympics the way SYTYCD and idol are.

  11. Oh, Australia’s got talent.

    It’s just that nobody even vaguely talented would be stupid enough to come within a hundred kilometre exclusion zone around the studio where the show is taped.

  12. yeah, i think thats part of this shows charm that it doesnt take itself as seriously as other shows in the genre (Dance, Idol) that seem to think they are curing cancer or splitting the atom or something, I only really watch this show for a bit of a laugh, I dont really expect it to produce a genuine, lasting talent.

  13. Regardless of the outcome/longevity of the winner’s success, I still find this show is more entertaining than the majority of the reality stuff on air. Most likely because its different in that the ‘talent’ can come in any form, not just solely karaoke singers or fat people exercising or amateurs dancing for 90 seconds. Plus the hosts have great chemistry, its just a better show to appeal to a broader market I’d say.

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