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In NBC's America's Got Talent, performers battle it out on stage before three judges decide whether they are good enough to compete in the next round for the chance of winning $1 million. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Surprisingly enough, the show is produced by American Idol bad boy Simon Cowell and thus, bares quite the resemblance. In this version however, he has employed the cultured views of the one and only Mr David Hasselhoff to 'yay' or 'nay' the aspiring performers.

Performers who are able to make it through their act get to hear the opinion of the judges, which, if favourable see them graduate through to the next round. But that isn't it. Have you ever wondered what it might be like if you wedded Star Search' with the Gong Show'? Well, America's Got Talent lets you see! If the judges decide that they don't like what they see, they hit an X' button in front of them. Once three X's' are accumulated the performance is over and they're sent packing.

You really have to applaud Simon Cowell. He seems to have come to the conclusive that if you market a talent show with three judges, American will queue up. He is probably right, even though in America's Got Talent we are unfortunately treated to the views of fallen newspaper editor Piers Morgan. Morgan takes the roll of the harsh judge in this show, with Hasselhoff and the soft Brandy sitting alongside (but I must note she can dish out criticism unlike Paula Abdul in Cowell's other venture). I have to admit that the judges aren't the best that I've seen, Morgan being the stereotypical miserable Brit (I'm British so can say that) while the two American judges seem to be on a constant saccharin overdose! There are a couple of occasions where Piers Morgan does get it spot on like when he tells a juggler to gives up because he can't juggle. However, you have to say the Brandy and Hasselhoff give somewhat unpredictable and confusing comments for much of the show, possibly due to their lack of understanding in the business as a whole. In the British version, Cowell is actually a judge as well which probably helps the show to find actual talent as we all know he takes no prisoners.

The competition encompasses pretty much every possible kind of talent imaginable from an 8 year old stand-up comic, to jugglers, rapping grandmothers, street dancers and ventriloquists. The first series of the British version, won by opera singer Paul Potts, should have been won by an adorable 6 year old named Connie with her version of Somewhere

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