America's Got Talent (season 3)

The third season of America's Got Talent, an American talent show competition, was broadcast in the United States during 2008, from June 17 to October 1 on NBC; due to the network's live coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the program was forced to take a hiatus in August to avoid clashing with this. The third season brought in a number of changes to the program, including additional episodes of auditions for its broadcast schedule, the involvement of quarter-finals alongside semi-finals and the final, and doubling the number of participants that advanced from the bootcamp stage.

America's Got Talent
Season 3
Hosted byJerry Springer
Judges
WinnerNeal E. Boyd
Runner-ups
No. of episodes20
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseJune 17 (2008-06-17) –
October 1, 2008 (2008-10-01)
Additional information
WebsiteOfficial website
Season chronology

The third season was won by opera singer Neal E. Boyd, with singer and pianist Eli Mattson finishing in second place, and violinists Nuttin' But Stringz placing third. During its broadcast, the season averaged over 10.75 million viewers.

Season Overview

Following the previous season, auditions took place within five major cities - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta - with an additional round of auditions made online via Myspace and Facebook. Production staff had make changes to the schedule of their live episodes, after having to take into account the 2008 Summer Olympics - because the event would receive live coverage on NBC, the production staff had to place the program on a hiatus between August 7–26, in order to avoid it clashing with the network's schedule of the sporting event.

The third season saw a number of additional changes put into place with the program's format following the second season, two of which brought it along a similar arrangement used for Britain's Got Talent. Editing of filmed auditions for their respective episodes were conducted in a similar manner to the British edition, in that footage in each episode consisted of a montage chosen from each major city whose venue featured audition sessions - for example, a collection of auditions, both minor and notable from Dallas, would precede those from another major city following a commercial break. Participants in live rounds now would be determined by two separate votes - the public would decide the first four to advance, while the judges would chose the fifth participant to join them from those who placed 5th and 6th respectively in the public vote. The remaining changes included an expanded number of participants for the "Las Vegas Callback" stage of auditions, along with cosmetic updates to the program - alongside a new title card, the judges' table and the red Xs were re-styled to match the design of those used in Britain's Got Talent. Results episodes for this season were arranged on a sporadic schedule alongside live episodes, rather than a pre-ordained arrangement - quarter-finals had their results announced on the same day; semi-finals and the knockout final amongst the top 10 were done the day after the performance episode had been broadcast; while the grand-final's results were aired a week after the performance episode.

Of the participants who auditioned for this season, 40 secured a place in the live quarter-finals, with ten quarterfinalists in each. Around 20 from these rounds advanced and were split between the two semi-finals, with around 10 semi-finalists securing a place in the final, and 5 finalists securing a place in the season's grand-final. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this season:

  Winner |   Runner-up |   Third place |   Finalist
  Semi-finalist |   Quarter-finalist
Participant Genre Act Quarter-final Result
Beyond Belief Dance Company Dance Dance Troupe 2 Eliminated
Bruce Block Magic Magician 3 Eliminated
Bryan Cheatham Singing R&B Singer 4 Eliminated
Dallas Desperados Dancers Dance / Variety Cheerleading Dance Team 4 Eliminated
Daniel Jens Singing / Music Singer & Musician 2 Semi-Finalist
DC Cowboys Dance Dance Troupe 1 Eliminated
Derrick Barry Singing / Variety Britney Spears Impersonator 1 Eliminated
Donald Braswell II 1 Singing Singer 4 Grand-finalist
Dorae Saunders Singing / Variety Tina Turner Impersonator 4 Eliminated
Eli Mattson Singing / Music Singer & Pianist 4 Runner-up
Elite Acrobatics / Variety Martial Artist 1 Eliminated
Extreme Dance FX Dance / Variety Contemporary Modern Clog Dance Troupe 1 Semi-Finalist
Flambeaux Danger Fire Breather 4 Eliminated
George the Giant Variety Carnival Side Show Performer 2 Eliminated
Indiggo Singing Duet Twin Singers 4 Eliminated
Jessica Price Singing / Music Singer & Musician 1 Finalist
Jonathan Arons Dance / Music Dancing Trombonist 2 Eliminated
Jonathan Burkin Variety Baton Twirler 3 Semi-finalist
Joseph Hall Singing / Variety "Young Elvis" Impersonator 3 Finalist
Kaitlyn Maher Singing Singer 4 Finalist
Kazual Singing Vocal Group 2 Eliminated
Matthew Piazzi Comedy Impressionist 3 Eliminated
Michael Strelo-Smith Singing Classical Crossover Singer 3 Eliminated
Neal E. Boyd Singing Opera Singer 1 Winner
Nuttin' But Stringz Music Violinist Duo 4 Third place
Paul Salos Singing / Variety Frank Sinatra Impersonator 2 Finalist
Queen Emily Singing Singer 2 Grand-finalist
Ronny B Singing / Dance Singer & Dancer 1 Eliminated
Sarah Lenore Singing / Music Singer & Musician 3 Semi-finalist
Shequida Hall Singing / Variety Drag Opera Singer 3 Eliminated
Shimshi Magic Magician 1 Eliminated
Sick Step Dance Hip-hop Dance Crew 3 Semi-finalist
Slippery Kittens Dance / Variety Burlesque Dance Group 2 Eliminated
Taubl Family Music Family Musical Group 3 Semi-finalist
The Cadence Music Percussion Group 1 Semi-finalist
The James Gang Singing Hip-hop Rap Quartet 1 Semi-finalist
The Tapping Dads Dance Tap Dancing Group 4 Semi-finalist
The Texas State Strutters Dance Precision Dance Team 3 Eliminated
The Wright Kids Music Bluegrass Trio 2 Finalist
ZOOperstars! Dance / Variety Mascot Dance Troupe 2 Semi-finalist
  • ^1 This act was originally eliminated during the bootcamp stage, but was advanced into the contest, via a public vote, after another act was forced to step down for medical reasons.

Quarter-final summary
Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |   Advanced to Semi-finals
  Won Judges' Vote |   Lost Judges' Vote

Quarter-final 1 (August 26)
Quarter-Finalist Order Buzzes and Judges' Vote Result
Hasselhoff Osbourne Morgan
Extreme Dance FX 1 Advanced
The James Gang 2 2 Won Judges' Vote
Derrick Barry 3 Eliminated
Elite 4 2 Lost Judges' Vote
Ronny B 5 Eliminated
The Cadence 6 Advanced
Jessica Price 7 Advanced
Shimshi 8 Eliminated
DC Cowboys 9 Eliminated
Neal E. Boyd 10 Advanced
  • ^2 Because of the majority vote for The James Gang, Hasselhoff's voting intention was not disclosed as a result.

Quarter-final 2 (August 27)
Quarter-Finalist Order Buzzes and Judges' Vote Result
Hasselhoff Osbourne Morgan
Beyond Belief Dance Company 1 Lost Judges' Vote
Paul Salos 2 Advanced
Kazual 3 Eliminated
ZOOperstars! 4 Won Judges' Vote
The Wright Kids 5 Advanced
Jonathan Arons 6 Eliminated
Daniel Jens 7 Advanced
Slippery Kittens 8 Eliminated
George the Giant 9 Eliminated
Queen Emily 10 Advanced

Quarter-final 3 (September 2)
Quarter-Finalist Order Buzzes and Judges' Vote Result
Hasselhoff Osbourne Morgan
The Texas State Strutters 1 Eliminated
Michael Strelo-Smith 2 Lost Judges' Vote
Bruce Block 3 Eliminated
Shequida Hall 4 Eliminated
Taubl Family 5 Advanced
Jonathan Burkin 6 Advanced
Sarah Lenore 7 Advanced
SickStep 8 Won Judges' Vote
Matthew Piazzi 9 Eliminated
Joseph Hall 10 Advanced

Quarter-final 4 (September 3)
Quarter-Finalist Order Buzzes and Judges' Vote Result
Hasselhoff Osbourne Morgan
Dallas Desperados Dancers 1 Eliminated
Bryan Cheatham 2 / Lost Judges' Vote
Flambeaux 3 Eliminated
Kaitlyn Maher 4 Advanced
Dorae Saunders 5 Eliminated
Donald Braswell II 6 Advanced
Indiggo 7 Eliminated
The Tapping Dads 8 Won Judges' Vote
Eli Mattson 9 Advanced
Nuttin' But Stringz 10 Advanced

Semi-final summary
Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |   Advanced to Finals
  Won Judges' Vote |   Lost Judges' Vote

Semi-final 1 (September 9)
Semi-Finalist Order Buzzes and Judges' Vote Result
(September 11)
Hasselhoff Osbourne Morgan
The Cadence 1 Eliminated
Queen Emily 2 Advanced
The Wright Kids 3 Advanced
The James Gang 4 Eliminated
Daniel Jens 5 Lost Judges' Vote
ZOOperstars! 6 Eliminated
Neal E. Boyd 7 Advanced
Jessica Price 8 / Won Judges' Vote
Extreme Dance FX 9 Eliminated
Paul Salos 10 Advanced

Semi-final 2 (September 10)
Semi-Finalist Order Buzzes and Judges' Vote Result
(September 11)
Hasselhoff Osbourne Morgan
SickStep 1 Eliminated
Donald Braswell II 2 Advanced
Joseph Hall 3 Won Judges' Vote
Taubl Family 4 Eliminated
Sarah Lenore 5 Eliminated
Nuttin' But Stringz 6 Advanced
Kaitlyn Maher 7 Advanced
The Tapping Dads 8 Eliminated
Eli Mattson 9 Advanced
Jonathan Burkin 10 Lost Judges' Vote

Finals summary
  Winner (Top 5 Final Only) |   Runner-up (Top 5 Final Only) |   3rd place (Top 5 Final Only)
  Advanced (Top 10 Finals only) |   Eliminated | Buzzed Out (Top 10 Finals only)

Final - Top 10 (September 17)
Top 10 Finalist Order Buzzes Result
(September 18)
Hasselhoff Osbourne Morgan
Paul Salos 1 Eliminated
Kaitlyn Maher 2 Eliminated
Donald Braswell II 3 Advanced
Jessica Price 4 Eliminated
Joseph Hall 5 Eliminated
Neal E. Boyd 6 Advanced
The Wright Kids 7 Eliminated
Queen Emily 8 Advanced
Nuttin' But Stringz 9 Advanced
Eli Mattson 10 Advanced

Grand-final (September 24)
Grand-finalist Order Result
(October 1)
Nuttin' But Stringz 1 3rd
Donald Braswell II 2 4th
Neal E. Boyd 3 1st
Eli Mattson 4 2nd
Queen Emily 5 5th

Ratings
Show Rating Rating/Share
(18-49)		 Viewers
(millions)
1 7.8 3.8/10 [1] 12.80
2 7 3.1/9 11.51
3 7.5 3.2/10 11.98
4 7.6 3.3/9 12.40
5 7.8 3.1/9 12.53
6 7.8 3.3/10 N/A
7 7.9 3.6/10 13.61
8 7.8 3.5/10 12.42
9 N/A 2.7/8 8.57
10 N/A 3.1/9 10.96
11 N/A 2.7/8 10.13
12 N/A 6.5/10 10.58
13 N/A 2.7/7 10.15
14 7.1 2.6/10 11.60
15 N/A 2.5/8 11.49
16 N/A 2.3/8 9.64
17 N/A 3.1/9 12.05
18 N/A 2.3/7 9.83
19 6.6 2.7/7 10.23
20 7.7 3.3/8 12.55

References
  1. "Tuesday 6/17/08". June 18, 2008. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008. Retrieved June 18, 2008.

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