Talent shows have been popular entertainment for centuries but gained widespread popularity with the advent of radio and television. Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour was an early radio and TV show in the 1940s-1970s that helped launch the careers of stars like Gladys Knight by giving performers a national audience. Shows like Star Search in the 1980s and American Idol in the 2000s further built on this format, producing major celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Kelly Clarkson. While many aspire to fame, talent competitions also entertain audiences with both successes and failures. The emotional backstories of contestants also draw large viewership. Variations of the format remain popular with shows like America's

1. T
alent competi-
tions—full of
feats of prowess,
wit and skill (and
failure)—have been around
for centuries. But it took
modern technology to launch
them from the stage to the
airwaves—and we have been
glued to our sets ever since.
It started with Ted Mack’s The
Original Amateur Hour—a
radio program before making
its TV debut in 1948—that
tapped into America’s hunger,
optimism and celebratory
spirit after World War II. As
TV viewers voted by phone
and mail, musical performers
advanced each week toward
an annual championship and a
$2,000 grand prize.
“People in the early days
of television took their cue
from radio and vaudeville, and
Amateur Hour was the perfect
morphing of both,” says
Michael Schneider, executive
editor of Indiewire and former
chief content officer of TV
Guide. “Prior to that, people in
one part of the country really
couldn’t even interact with
people from another part of
the country.”
Among many others, Gladys
Knight, Fame actress Irene
Cara and Tanya Tucker were
discovered through Amateur
Hour. After it went off the air
in 1970, star-studded, celeb-
rity-driven shows hosted by
the likes of Carol Burnett and
Dean Martin dominated for
a decade until Ed McMahon
picked up where Mack left
off by launching Star Search
in 1983.
Vocalists, musical groups,
comedians and dancers all
competed against one another
to win $100,000, and legions
of modern-day stars had their
first brushes with fame on
Star Search. Famous “losers”
included Justin Timberlake,
Christina Aguilera, Dennis
Miller, Aaliyah, Alanis
Morissette, Beyoncé and
Britney Spears.
Though Amateur Hour and
Star Search laid the founda-
tion, with open audition calls
in multiple cities across the
country, American Idol tapped
into the idea that we’re all
just a phone vote away from
fame. And for the first time,
the winner wouldn’t just get a
monetary prize, but a record-
ing contract with a major
label too.
“There are a lot of things
that can be taught, but being
great on television? Some
people just have that natural
ability and they jump through
the screen,” says Scott Bor-
chetta, founder, president and
CEO of Big Machine Label
Group and mentor on the last
two seasons of Idol.
From Kelly Clarkson to
8 | MAY 22, 2016
70 YEARS OF
70 YEARS OF
BY KRISTIN LUNA
Gladys Knight was one of the
many stars discovered on Ted
Mack’s Original Amateur Hour,
the TV and radio show hosted
by Ted Mack (above right).
FROMLEFT:APPHOTO;EVERETTCOLLECTION;DAVIDWIMSETT/UPPA/ZUMA
Johnny Carson’s late-night TV
sidekick and second banana Ed
McMahon found his own spot-
light as the host of Star Search,
which revived the TV talent-
show format in the 1980s.
Jennifer Hudson may only have
made it to sixth place on Ameri-
can Idol in 2004, but that Oscar
for her performance in Dream-
girls (2006) made up for it.
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1948-19701948-1970

2. Carrie Underwood, Idol
alumni have achieved the
most fame of any contes-
tants—50 percent of the
top 10 went on to success-
ful careers in music,TV and
film, Borchetta adds—selling
tens of millions of albums,
winning Golden Globes and
Oscars (Jennifer Hudson)
and appearing on Broadway
(Fantasia Barrino, Diana
DeGarmo, Clay Aiken).
Myriad other acts, some
also vocalists but many not,
have seen similar success via
The Sing-Off, The Voice, The
X Factor and America’s Got
Talent. Comedians, in par-
ticular, don’t have as broad an
outlet as radio for their acts to
be heard, so the curb appeal
of a show like Last Comic
Standing often boils down to
the potential of being seen on
a national stage.
“It’s always exhilarating
performing to a crowded
room—now multiply that
room by millions,” says Los
Angeles–based comedian Ron
Babcock, a season seven con-
testant on Last Comic Standing.
“If you added up every single
audience member at every
club, theater and college I’ve
ever performed in front of—all
those together don’t even come
close to the audience watching
a national show.
“Plus,” he adds, “it makes
my mom so happy that she
can go to work and drop the
whole ‘My son was on TV’
line.”
For every Ron Babcock
or Kelly Clarkson who ap-
pears on such a competition,
though, there are hundreds
of duds who make us cringe.
And that’s part of the appeal
of these shows, says Los
Angeles–based psychiatrist
and author Mark Goulston,
M.D. “Why do we watch?
To occasionally get excited
when your pick wins, but also
to rubberneck when you see
something disastrous.”
The rags-to-riches Cinder-
ella stories that pepper each
episode also draw in the view-
ers en masse; the more tragic
the background, the better the
contestant often fares, proving
that society loves a good sob
story. When Clarkson was
still a struggling singer, she
lived out of her car after her
apartment building burned to
the ground, a story that played
out for the millions of view-
ers watching that inaugural
season of Idol. On America’s
Got Talent, it was revealed that
the Willis Clan, a 12-member
band of siblings from Ten-
nessee, had a horrific history
laced with sorrow after their
grandparents lost six of their
nine children in a car accident
two decades prior.
“It’s about the storytelling,”
Borchetta says. “When you
see those hometown visits,
when you see the transforma-
tion—which may be the most
important element—into a
definitive artist, people are
fascinated by that as much as
or more than anything else.”
Adds Kim Chronister, a li-
censed clinical psychologist in
California: “Neurochemically
speaking, viewers experience a
spike in norepinephrine—
a feel-good chemical in the
brain—that results from being
in the suspense and excite-
ment of watching the reality
competitions play out on TV.”
Still, as the number of
talent show competitions con-
tinues to multiply, this quest
for the American Dream
becomes, for many, a real
possibility rather than mere
unachievable fantasy. At the
same time, due to oversatura-
tion, the genre may be close to
reaching its shelf life, at least
for the next decade or so.
“Interestingly, we’re back
to programs like Lip Sync
Battle or Carpool Karaoke that
feel like talent shows but are
celebrity driven,” Schneider
says. “That will eventually tire
and someone will come up
with a fresh take on the ama-
teur show and they’ll be back
again. It’s the beautiful circle
of life in television.”
MAY 22, 2016 | 9
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TRAEPATTON/NBC/GETTYIMAGES
Which five big stars didn’t make the cut on TV’s top
talent shows—but went on to stardom anyway? Go to
Parade.com/winnerlosers to find out.
Standup comedian Ron Babcock
calls his 2010 appearance
on TV’s Last Comic Standing
“exhilarating” multiplied “by
millions.”
A panel of celebrity judges
select singers based on their
performances on The Voice,
which was inspired by a Dutch
reality show.
He’s no dummy: In 2007,
America’s Got Talent season
two winner Terry Fator made
ventriloquism popular again.
Simon Cowell originated The
X Factor in his native Great
Britain, then launched an
American version—along with
other spinoffs around the globe.2003-2010
2014-2015
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3. 10 | MAY 22, 2016
I
t’s hard to forget
seeing Simon
Cowell on TV for
the first time. It was
2002 when the London-
born judge appeared on
American Idol, offering
his humorously blunt
criticism of young singers
who were auditioning to
be stars.
But bluster aside,
Cowell, 56, has a serious
eye for talent. Besides his
nine seasons on Idol and
his shows in England,
he’s developed more
talent shows in America,
including The X Factor
(which spawned the hit
band One Direction)
and America’s Got
Talent, which now
airs in more than 165
countries around the
world. As the 11th
season of America’s
Got Talent premieres
on NBC on May 31 (at
8 p.m. ET), Cowell—
who joins the AGT panel for
the first time—discusses why
we’re fascinated with this kind
of TV, as hopefuls of all ages
put their singing, dancing,
juggling, acrobatic, magic-
trick, joke-telling, fire-eating
and other skills to the test.
Why do we love watching
talent shows? In this day of
reality television, where 90
percent of it is scripted and
faked, the irony is that reality
TV has become the opposite:
unreality TV.The difference
in a [talent show] audition
is that you actually can’t fake
it. If you’ve got to sing or if
you’ve got an act, you have to
be yourself. So [viewers are]
watching someone vulnerable,
who could change his or her
life forever with one audition.
It’s fascinating. It’s sort of
addictive.
What compels people to put
their hearts and souls onstage
for all of us to see? Because
of Facebook and You-
Tube, the whole world’s
auditioning at the mo-
ment. You know,“Here’s
my [act] on YouTube”or
“Here’s my pictures on
Instagram—like or dis-
like?”We’ve become quite
extroverts. Everybody
wants to be famous in his
or her own way.
What do you think
constitutes talent? I
find that very difficult
to define. Having the
ability to sing well is one
thing. Charisma’s really
important. But being
remembered, I’d
say, is probably the
most important
thing nowadays;
you’ve got to have
something people
remember you by—which
is what I think Susan
Boyle had at that time.
She had a great voice,
but she had something
people related to.
Do you think everyone has
some kind of talent? I think
everyone’s got something. You
take Madonna—she’s never
going to say she’s the best
singer in the world; she’s not.
But her turn in life is manag-
ing to stay relevant for what,
how many decades—’80s,’90s,
now? Four decades! That’s
ridiculous! That’s a talent, to
market her job.
What’s your talent? I think I
am good at finding talent. I’ve
got a pretty good eye, a pretty
good ear. And I can kind of
see into the future a bit. I can
see beyond what’s standing in
front of me now.
Have you ever participated
in a talent show, other than
as a judge? Never in a million,
billion years. I think God had
a word with me when I was
very, very young and He said,
“Stay this side of the desk.”
You never even performed
as a kid? Just once? Well,
yeah, I did once perform in a
play, myself and my brother.
And we were so bad, we got
written up in the local paper
as two of the worst actors he’d
ever seen! Because we laughed
the entire way through the
play. We were only doing it
for fun, and I remember get-
ting the review and bursting
out laughing.
You’ve been known for being
very blunt when you judge.
But do you have a soft spot?
Yeah, I love animals.That’s
my main thing. I don’t like
bullies to animals or kids; I
think that’s kind of a sickness.
So when I meet someone who
has done that, it repulses me.
So I work a lot with animal
charities.
Beyond entertainment, what
purpose does a show like
America’s Got Talent serve?
Being inclusive, I think. Hav-
ing as few rules as possible.
Anyone is genuinely welcome.
PHOTOCREDITTKTK
What’s the hardest thing about being a judge?
Go to Parade.com/simoncowell to find out.
BY AMY SPENCER
SIMON
SAYS
SIMON
SAYS