Could Susan Boyle, the Internet sensation and the favorite to win “Britain’s Got Talent,” appear on “America’s Got Talent,” which kicks off its fourth season June 23 on NBC? It certainly sounds as though the network would like that.
“She’d be a very welcome guest,” NBC reality chief Paul Telegdy told TV Week. “Her availability, though, is a bit of a mystery right now.”
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Even if she can make it, would her performance be up to snuff? “American Idol’s” Simon Cowell, one of the “Britain’s Got Talent” judges wowed by Boyle, said the Scottish singer would have to raise her game before she returns to the English show for her next appearance, which is in a few weeks.
“She’s got to sing better than she sang before,” Cowell told Access Hollywood. “It could all go horribly wrong because there’s so many other distractions” in her life now.
By the way, a California-based Tribune reader, Charles Engen, recently wrote to say that he had attended a taping of “America’s Got Talent” in the Los Angeles area with his wife. Engen said he was mystified when various individuals referred to the auditions as if they were taking place in Chicago.
“My wife and I wanted someone in Chicago to know that the show is representing that we, the audience, and [the judges] were in Chicago, and on this day, I can tell you they were not,” Engen wrote.
Manfred Westphal, a spokesman for FremantleMedia North America, which makes “America’s Got Talent,” said that though the show’s on-camera judges did travel to various cities for the audition rounds, they were not able to make it to Chicago. As a result, Chicago-area contestants were flown to Los Angeles and performed there for the judges’ panel, which consists of David Hasselhoff, Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan (who is also a judge on “Britain’s Got Talent”).
“We did indeed conduct auditions this year in Chicago for the fourth season of ‘America’s Got Talent,'” according to a FremantleMedia statement issued by Westphal. “Unfortunately, due to a tight production schedule, contestants were unable to perform in front of the judges, so they were later flown to Los Angeles. Out of respect to these individuals, we asked the audience to react to the performances as if they were taking place in Chicago. It is and always has been our intention to disclose this fact to viewers at the time of broadcast; however, the location of the taping does not affect the integrity of the competition.”
Westphal said the TV audience would be told, during the course of that episode, that though the performers are from Chicago, “the taping took place in Los Angeles.”
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