Summer tends to be the slow season on network TV, since the biggest shows are on hiatus until the fall. NBC is an exception, however, and it’s all thanks to the one show that has been going strong every summer for the past two decades. America’s Got Talent, currently in its 21st season, is NBC’s biggest summer show by far. The network goes to great lengths to hype the series every year, and there’s never any doubt that AGT will return the next summer. There is a key way that AGT doesn’t dominate, and that’s on the awards circuit.
America’s Got Talent has just gotten bigger and more elaborate with each passing year, and even launched several spinoffs on NBC. Despite its status as one of NBC’s longest-running shows, though, it has only been nominated for 12 Emmys over 21 seasons so far. A show’s success shouldn’t entirely depend on how many trophies it earns, of course, but the fact remains that America’s Got Talent has never won in any primetime category, while all the network shows that are the most similar to AGT have several Emmys.
While AGT is the only reality competition series that welcomes any and all kinds of performances, the various shows that specifically focus on dancing and singing have been a lot more successful on the awards circuit. American Idol and Dancing with the Stars on ABC are regular winners, and Fox has earned some wins with The Masked Singer and So You Think You Can Dance. America’s Got Talent missing out isn’t even a case of the network being snubbed; The Voice has the second-highest number of nominations among these network shows.
Now, as season 21 continues airing on NBC, it becomes clearer each week that America’s Got Talent deserves more recognition on the awards circuit than it got over its first two decades in primetime.
Why America’s Got Talent Hasn’t Won Any Emmys
It wouldn’t necessarily be too jarring if AGT‘s shortage of Emmys only applied to the biggest categories, like Outstanding Reality Competition Program or Outstanding Host for a Reality Competition Program. Terry Crews is the host, but the majority of the focus is on judges Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara, and Mel B., and there’s no Outstanding Judge Emmy. Plus, America’s Got Talent is a lot more scattered than other network TV competition shows, simply because there’s no single focus for the contestants.
American Idol and The Voice are about singing, Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance are about dancing, and The Masked Singer is about singing in ridiculously elaborate costumes. AGT packages all of that into one show, so it makes sense that it’s not necessarily ranked among the best of the best in one category. It would likely never win a choreography Emmy over Dancing with the Stars, for example, or a sound mixing Emmy over American Idol.
But AGT is certainly worthy of at least one win in the categories it has been nominated in, especially Outstanding Lighting Design and Outstanding Technical Direction. Instead, it stands alone among similar network TV shows when it comes to Emmy wins.
|
Show |
Nominations |
Wins |
|---|---|---|
|
America’s Got Talent – 21 seasons |
12 |
0 |
|
American Idol – 24 seasons |
74 |
8 |
|
Dancing with the Stars – 34 seasons |
127 |
21 |
|
The Masked Singer – 14 seasons |
9 |
2 |
|
So You Think You Can Dance – 18 seasons |
73 |
17 |
|
The Voice – 29 seasons |
86 |
9 |
Unfortunately for America’s Got Talent, the competition in its top categories is usually very stiff, and it’s not just from the other network TV competition projects. Shows like Saturday Night Live, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver have been known to dominate, which isn’t too surprising. SNL has won the most Emmys of any show in the history of the awards ceremony.
Another way that AGT is an outlier from the other network talent shows is the fact that each season airs over the summer. American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, The Masked Singer, and The Voice almost always release new seasons in the fall or in midseason. So You Think You Can Dance is the only other summer show, and it’s also the only one of these six that was cancelled after coming back for a revival.
Why America’s Got Talent Deserves An Emmy
All of this said, America’s Got Talent is a fairly remarkable production for NBC to air every week over the summer every year. The show may not be the most cohesive talent competition on network television, but there are a lot of moving pieces in play in every episode. By the end, the episodes have switched from pre-taped to live, and there are usually two episodes per week toward the end of each season. That’s a mighty task for network TV.
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There are almost endless variables to deal with just to make the show happen each week, and that’s not even accounting for the challenges of the performances. AGT not only has to deliver epic lighting for singers, like The Voice and American Idol do, but also for dance troupes, death-defying acrobats, comedians, magicians, and even puppeteers. Surely, the show has done enough to at least win an Emmy for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series at this point, if nothing else.
For as long as the usual competition keeps dominating the Variety Series categories, the odds may always be stacked against America’s Got Talent. Still, NBC’s biggest summer show deserves more recognition than it gets.