''30 Seconds to Fame'' is an American television series that was shown on the

Fox Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

from July 17, 2002 to June 26, 2003, featuring a talent show where acts could only last up to 30 seconds each, regardless of any resolution to the act. The series was hosted by Craig Jackson. Many different talents were exhibited, such as

contortionism Contortion (sometimes contortionism) is a performance art in which performers called contortionists showcase their skills of extreme physical flexibility. Contortion acts often accompany acrobatics, Circus (performing art), circus acts, street ...

juggling Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...

, magic tricks,

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

, and

beatboxing Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

, in addition to singing and dancing acts. Much of the charm of the show was derived from the fact that each act lasted only 30 seconds, leading to a variety of different acts being displayed. The live

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

acted as the judges. During the performances, if the audience found an act undesirable to watch, they

booed Booing is an act of publicly showing displeasure for someone or something, such as an entertainer or an athlete, by loudly yelling "Boo!" and sustaining the "oo" sound by holding it out. People may also make hand signs such as the thumbs down sig ...

and used electronic devices to put in a vote for elimination, complete with an on-screen "Eliminator" scale graphic (colored in green, yellow, and red). If enough people did so (i.e. the "Eliminator" scale needle hit any part of the red area), the act was to be cut short, regardless of how much time was left on the clock. At the end of the show, every member of the audience voted for his or her favorite act, and the top three acts got a chance to do another 30-second performance. After this, a final round of voting occurred, and the winner earned a cash prize of US$25,000. The network began to rerun the series on their Saturday late night block in January 2011 in order to fill the half-hour after ''

Fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts * Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe" * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * The Fringe, the ...

'' which was vacated by the canceled ''

Running Wilde ''Running Wilde'' is an American sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz for the Fox Network. It stars Will Arnett as Steve Wilde, a self-centered, idle bachelor and heir to an oil fortune. The series follows Wilde's awkward attempts to regain the a ...

'', until the launch of the '' Animation Domination High Definition'' block in July 2013; the late night timeslot was used for repurposed reruns of recent Fox series after Fox temporarily ending original late night programming in September 2010.

International versions

These versions are no longer airing. *In Indonesian version,

Global TV The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after CT ...

picked this format which was distributed with

FremantleMedia Fremantle (; formerly FremantleMedia) is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. Fremantle takes its name from Fremantle International, acquired by predecessor company All American Television in ...

References

External links

Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:30 Seconds to Fame 20th Television franchises 2000s American game shows 2002 American television series debuts 2003 American television series endings Fox Broadcasting Company original programming 2000s American variety television series English-language television shows Television series by 20th Century Fox Television