The thirteenth season of American talent show competition series America's Got Talent was broadcast on NBC from May 29 to September 19, 2018. There were no major changes to the program during the season; the guest judges for this season's Judge Cuts episodes were Ken Jeong, Olivia Munn, Martina McBride, and Chris Hardwick.
The thirteenth season was won by close-up magician Shin Lim, with acrobatic group Zurcaroh finishing second, and electric violinist Brian King Joseph placing third. During its broadcast, the season averaged around 11.15 million viewers.
Season overview Open auditions were held in late 2017 within Orlando, Cincinnati, Savannah, Milwaukee, Houston, Las Vegas, New York City, Nashville, and Los Angeles (while online auditions were accepted). As in previous years, the judges' auditions were held and filmed in March 2018 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles. The Judge Cuts episodes included actor Ken Jeong, actress Olivia Munn, singer Martina McBride, and comedian Chris Hardwick appearing as guest judges.
Thirty-six of the participants auditioning secured a place in the live quarter-finals, with twelve quarter-finalists appearing in each of the shows. Among the contestants: acrobatic group Zurcaroh, singer Michael Ketterer, singer Courtney Hadwin, singer Amanda Mena, and singer Makayla Phillips who had each received a golden buzzer from the main judges and host; choir Voices of Hope, choir Angel City Chorale, ballroom dancers Quin and Misha, and rapper Flau'jae who had each received a Golden Buzzer from the guest judges; opera singer Daniel Emmet, novelty water-spitting act Human Fountains, and multimedia performance group Front Pictures who were chosen as Wildcard quarter-finalists. Twenty-two quarter-finalists advanced and appeared in two semi-finals (eleven in each show), including Front Pictures which was chosen again by the judges (as the Wildcard semi-finalist); ten semi-finalists securing a place in the finals. The chart below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this season:
| Wildcard Quarter-finalist | Wildcard Semi-finalist Golden Buzzer - Auditions | Golden Buzzer - Judge Cuts
ParticipantAge(s) GenreActFromQuarter-FinalResult Aaron Crow 49 Danger Danger Act Bruges, Belgium 3 Amanda Mena 16 Singing Singer Boston 1 Angel City Chorale 19-88 Singing Choir Los Angeles 1 Brian King Joseph 27 Music Electric Violinist Los Angeles 3 Christina Wells 42 Singing Singer Houston 3 Courtney Hadwin 14 Singing Singer Peterlee, England 1 Da RepubliK 15-32 Dance Dance Group Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 2 Daniel Emmet 25 Singing Opera Singer Las Vegas 3 Duo Transcend 29 & 32 Acrobatics Trapeze Duo Salt Lake City, Utah 2 Flau'jae 14 Singing Rapper Savannah, Georgia 1 Front Pictures 41 & 43 Variety Multimedia Act Kyiv, Ukraine 2 Glennis Grace 40 Singing Singer Amsterdam, Netherlands 2 Hans 19 Singing / Music Singer & Accordionist Adelaide, Australia 3 Human Fountains 24-29 Variety Water Spitting Act Los Angeles 1 Joseph O'Brien 20 Singing / Music Singer & Pianist Columbia, Tennessee 3 Junior New System 18-25 Dance Dance Group Manila, Philippines 1 Lord Nil 38 Danger Escape Artist Italy 1 Makayla Phillips 16 Singing Singer Canyon Lake, California 2 Michael Ketterer 40 Singing Singer Anaheim, California 3 Mochi 29 Variety Multimedia Diabolo Juggler Shizuoka, Japan 1 Noah Guthrie 24 Singing / Music Singer & Guitarist Greer, South Carolina 2 Quin & Misha 70 & 35 Dance Ballroom Duo Orlando 2 Rob Lake 35 Magic Illusionist Norman, Oklahoma 3 Samuel J. Comroe 30 Comedy Comedian Los Angeles 2 Shin Lim 26 Magic Magician Boston 1 The Future Kingz 7-23 Dance Dance Group Chicago 3 The PAC Dance Team 15-18 Dance Dance Group Sahuarita near Tucson, Arizona 1 The Sacred Riana 25 Magic Illusionist Jakarta, Indonesia 2 The Savitsky Cats 24 & 45 Animals Cat Act Ukraine 2 UDI 20-37 Dance Electronic Dance Group Tomsk, Russia 3 Us the Duo 27 & 28 Singing / Music Vocal Duo Los Angeles 3 Vicki Barbolak 60 Comedy Comedian Oceanside, California 1 Voices of Hope 5-17 Singing Choir Orange County, California 2 We Three 21-27 Singing / Music Band McMinnville, Oregon 1 Yumbo Dump 31 & 34 Variety Novelty Duo Okayama, Japan 2 Zurcaroh 8-39 Acrobatics Acrobatic Group Götzis, Austria 3
Ages denoted for a participant(s), pertain to their final performance for this season.
Quarter-finals summary Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |
Quarter-final 1 (August 14) Guest Performer, Results Show: Darci Lynne
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 15) Mochi 1 Human Fountains 2 Angel City Chorale 3 The PAC Dance Team 4 Amanda Mena 5 Junior New System 6 We Three 7 Lord Nil 8 Flau'jae 9 Shin Lim 10 Vicki Barbolak 11 Courtney Hadwin 12
Quarter-final 2 (August 21) Guest Performers, Results Show: The Illusionists, and Light Balance
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 22) Makayla Phillips 1 Da RepubliK 2 Noah Guthrie 3 Yumbo Dump 4 Samuel J. Comroe 5 Voices of Hope 6 The Savitsky Cats 7 Glennis Grace 8 The Sacred Riana 9 Quin & Misha 10 Front Pictures 11 Duo Transcend 12
Cowell and Mel B both originally buzzed Yumbo Dump, but later retracted their buzzers. Front Pictures were later appointed as the judges' WildCard semi-finalist.
Quarter-final 3 (August 28) Guest Performers, Results Show: Cast of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 29) The Future Kingz 1 Us the Duo 2 Daniel Emmet 3 Brian King Joseph 4 Aaron Crow 5 Joseph O'Brien 6 Hans 7 UDI 8 Christina Wells 9 Zurcaroh 10 Rob Lake 11 Michael Ketterer 12
Semi-finals summary Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |
Semi-final 1 (September 4) Semi-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (September 5) Amanda Mena 1 Junior New System 2 Us the Duo 3 Voices of Hope 4 Shin Lim 5 Makayla Phillips 6 Front Pictures 7 Duo Transcend 8 Samuel J. Comroe 9 Michael Ketterer 10 Zurcaroh 11
Semi-final 2 (September 11) Guest Performers, Results Show: BTS and cast of A Magical Cirque Christmas
Semi-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (September 12) Christina Wells 1 Da RepubliK 2 Noah Guthrie 3 Daniel Emmet 4 Angel City Chorale 5 Aaron Crow 6 Vicki Barbolak 7 We Three 8 Glennis Grace 9 Brian King Joseph 10 Courtney Hadwin 11
Finals (September 18–19) Guest Performers, Finale: Kiss
FinalistPerformed with(2nd Performance)Result (September 19) Brian King Joseph Lindsey Stirling Courtney Hadwin The Struts Daniel Emmet Plácido Domingo Duo Transcend Lindsey Stirling Glennis Grace Bebe Rexha Michael Ketterer N/A Samuel J. Comroe N/A Shin Lim Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila Vicki Barbolak David Spade Zurcaroh Lindsey Stirling
Brian King Joseph & Duo Transcend conducted a joint routine for their second performance, and thus shared the same guest performer.
Ratings The following ratings are based upon those published by Nielsen Media Research after this season's broadcast:
Episode Title First air date Timeslot (EDT) Rating(18–49) Share(18–49) Viewers NightlyRank WeeklyRank 1 Auditions Week 1 May 29, 2018 Tuesday8:00 p.m. 2.5 11 12.16 1 3 2 Auditions Week 2 June 5, 2018 2.2 10 11.27 1 3 3 Auditions Week 3 June 12, 2018 2.3 10 11.46 1 1 4 Auditions Week 4 June 19, 2018 2.2 10 11.86 1 1 5 Auditions Week 5 June 26, 2018 2.0 9 11.32 1 1 6 Auditions Week 6 July 10, 2018 2.1 9 11.55 1 1 7 Judge Cuts 1 July 17, 2018 2.1 9 11.33 1 1 8 Judge Cuts 2 July 24, 2018 2.0 8 11.68 1 1 9 Judge Cuts 3 July 31, 2018 2.1 9 11.83 1 1 10 Judge Cuts 4 August 7, 2018 1.9 9 11.04 1 1 11 Quarterfinals, Week 1 (Performances) August 14, 2018 2.1 10 11.10 1 1 12 Quarterfinals, Week 1 (Results) August 15, 2018 Wednesday8:00 p.m. 1.5 8 9.85 2 2 13 Quarterfinals, Week 2 (Performances) August 21, 2018 Tuesday8:00 p.m. 2.1 9 11.21 1 1 14 Quarterfinals, Week 2 (Results) August 22, 2018 Wednesday8:00 p.m. 1.6 8 9.69 1 2 15 Quarterfinals, Week 3 (Performances) August 28, 2018 Tuesday8:00 p.m. 1.9 8 10.78 1 1 16 Quarterfinals, Week 3 (Results) August 29, 2018 Wednesday8:00 p.m. 1.5 7 9.90 2 2 17 Semifinals, Week 1 (Performances) September 4, 2018 Tuesday8:00 p.m. 1.8 8 10.69 1 5 18 Semifinals, Week 1 (Results) September 5, 2018 Wednesday8:00 p.m. 1.5 7 9.89 2 7 19 Semifinals, Week 2 (Performances) September 11, 2018 Tuesday8:00 p.m. 1.9 8 10.75 1 4 20 Semifinals, Week 2 (Results) September 12, 2018 Wednesday8:00 p.m. 1.6 8 10.15 1 5 21 The Finals September 18, 2018 Tuesday8:00 p.m. 2.3 10 12.99 1 2 22 Season Finale September 19, 2018 Wednesday8:00 p.m. 2.1 10 12.88 1 3
Specials
Specials Title First air date Timeslot (EDT) Rating(18–49) Share(18–49) Viewers NightlyRank WeeklyRank S1 Best of Auditions July 11, 2018 Wednesday8:00 p.m. 0.9 5 5.98 2 4 S2 Road to Lives August 9, 2018 Thursday8:00 p.m. 0.7 3 3.82 2 21
References