The third season of American

talent show A talent show or talent contest is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are p ...

competition series ''

America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distributed by) and ...

'' was broadcast on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

from June 17 to October 1, 2008. After the conclusion of the second season, changes to the program included the creation of additional audition episodes in the broadcast schedule, the involvement of quarter-finals in the competition, and doubling the number of participants that advanced from the boot camp stage. Between August 7–26, the show had a planned break to avoid clashing with the network's live coverage of the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

. 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 roughly over 10.75 million viewers.

Season overview

Following the previous season, auditions took place in five major cities:

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Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. Additional rounds of auditions were made online via

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and

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. Changes to the schedule of live episodes were due to the

, since the event received live coverage on

. The program was on hiatus between August 7–26, in order to avoid it clashing with the network's schedule of the sporting event. The third season had 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 ''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global '' Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquial ...

''. Editing of filmed auditions for their respective episodes were conducted in a similar manner to the British edition, with footage in each episode consisting 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), preceded those from another major city following a commercial break. Participants in live rounds were determined by two separate votes, while the public decided the first four to advance, and the judges 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 after the last two seasons. Quarter-finals had their results announced on the same day. Semi-finals and the knockout final among the top ten were done the day after the performance episode had been broadcast. The grand-finale's results were aired a week after the performance episode. Forty of the participants who auditioned for this season secured a place in the live quarter-finals, with ten quarterfinalists performing in each show. About twenty from these rounds advanced and were split between the two semi-finals, with around ten semi-finalists securing a place in the final, and five finalists securing a place in the season's grand-finale. These are the results of each participant's overall performance during the season: : , , , : , * 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 , Crystal Clear app clean

Judges' choice , : ,

Quarter-final 1 (August 26)

* 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-final 3 (September 2)

Quarter-final 4 (September 3)

Semi-final summary

Buzzed Out , Crystal Clear app clean

Judges' choice , : ,

Semi-final 1 (September 9)

Semi-final 2 (September 10)

* Guest performer: Terry Fator

Finals summary

: , , : , , Crystal Clear action button cancel

Buzzed Out (Top 10 Finals only)

Final - Top 10 (September 17)

* Guest Performer, Results Show:

Natasha Bedingfield Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British and New Zealand singer, songwriter and record producer. She released her debut album, '' Unwritten'', in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R& ...

Grand-finale (September 24)

Ratings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:America's Got Talent (Season 3) 2008 American television seasons America's Got Talent seasons