Spoilers ahead for the Season 1 finale of America’s Got Talent: All-Stars on NBC.
The America’s Got Talent franchise is going as strong as ever with the final episode of the All-Stars spinoff. The new show brought back sixty of the very best across the franchise to compete for an even bigger title than champion of a normal season, and the final round was cut down to the Top 11. They were all such strong competitors that it would be hard to argue that any of them were unworthy, and the winner deserved the victory, but something was still missing from the finale for me.
The final eleven all-stars who made it to the finale were aerialist Aidan Bryant, young magician Aidan McCann, ventriloquist Ana Măria Margean, saxophonist Avery Dixon, balancing group Bello Sisters, singing group Detroit Youth Choir, singer Kodi Lee, dance act Light Balance Kids, comedian Mike E. Winfield, aerialist act Power Duo, and singer Tom Ball. There were some surprise early eliminations, notably including Lee, before the two-hour finale wrapped with Bryant as the new champion. Congratulations, Aidan Bryant!
It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours on a Monday night, and the usual filler for an AGT finale brought in some pretty big names. Along with former America’s Got Talent winners Terry Fator, Mat Franco, and Voices of Hope, the final eleven got to perform alongside stars including Adam Lambert, Babyface, Weezer, and Lindsey Stirling. I had a good enough time with the games that the judges and host Terry Crews were playing, but I found myself really missing the tension and suspense of a live finale with fans voting from home.
Now, I know that a live finale and episodes with fans voting from home couldn’t work with all-stars being brought in from all over the world with their busy schedules. It’s a different kind of competition than a normal season, which also lasts a lot longer than the nine episodes of AGT: All-Stars. This also isn’t the first time that a season in this franchise has relied on superfans doing the voting over fans voting from home. I just found myself really missing those thrills this time around.
Maybe it was simply because I had seen some of these finalists performing live in their earlier season finales, including Aidan Bryant and Avery Dixon, or maybe it was just that all of the finalists were already successful before this, but I wasn’t anywhere near the edge of my seat the way that I often am with AGT finales.
All in all, my biggest takeaway from the full season is that this was a fun way to spend a couple months of the new year, and I’m looking forward to getting back to watching live with fans voting from home when America’s Got Talent returns for Season 18.
Auditions for the next season are currently underway, and the show will presumably return in late spring or early summer, although there is no date in the 2023 TV premiere schedule just yet. For now, you can revisit America’s Got Talent: All-Stars and the latest season of America’s Got Talent streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
