The fifteenth season of the American talent show competition series America's Got Talent was broadcast on NBC from May 26 to September 23, 2020. Following the previous season, both Julianne Hough and Gabrielle Union left the program, leading to both being replaced prior to filming. Heidi Klum was brought back to resume her former role, while Sofía Vergara was hired to join her as a new judge on the judging panel. Simon Cowell missed the live shows, after sustaining an injury in August. While the first two quarter-finals featured guest judges in his place, the remainder of the live episodes were conducted without any further stand-ins.
The fifteenth season was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the United States in 2020, which affected arrangements for pre-recorded and live episodes. While most audition episodes had been filmed by the end of April (despite minor issues), remaining episodes were disrupted, but resumed after safety measures were implemented to prevent the risk of the infection spreading among staff and participants. Format changes included the use of a virtual audience for the live rounds, an alteration in the program's broadcast schedule for that year, and a revamp to the format for the Judge Cuts round that would condense it into a single episode while featuring no guest judges as in previous seasons.
The fifteenth season was won by spoken word poet Brandon Leake, with singing guitarists duo Broken Roots finishing second, and singer Cristina Rae placing third. During its broadcast, the season averaged around 6.61 million viewers.
Season overview Open auditions were held in late 2019, with closed auditions held across January to March the following year. Prior to the main auditions taking place, replacements were made for Julianne Hough and Gabrielle Union, who had been let go following the conclusion of the previous season. On February 27, 2020, it was announced that Heidi Klum would return as judge, in addition to newcomer Sofía Vergara.
The season was impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected television and film shoots across the globe. Although it had been partially disrupted by Klum falling ill, leading to Eric Stonestreet standing in for her during an audition session, restrictions imposed by the United States to combat the spread of COVID-19 caused the program to initially move to filming without an audience present at auditions (before production was ultimately suspended). Additional auditions were later allowed, but these had to be conducted online as a safety precaution. By April 27, the season would broadcast as planned and premiere on May 26, with the season featuring a hiatus after the audition episodes had been aired with the footage that had already been filmed.
In mid-June, production of the season resumed following changes in guidelines for media production by Californian state government, and discussions between industry unions, producers and local officials. While the Judges Cuts stage was held at an outdoor venue in Simi Valley, California, it required implementing several health and safety protocols including: performances conducted via videoconferencing on a cinema screen, masks being mandatory for all personnel when off-camera, enforced social distancing and regular testing of staff. The format was also changed with the number of participants for this stage reduced from seventy-two to sixty. No guest judges or Golden Buzzers were involved, and each participant were given a verdict after their performance. Cowell notably approved the change in format, including the decision to condense all footage taken into a single episode, having disliked the arrangement used in previous seasons.
By the end of July, a decision on how to produce the live round episodes was reached to include a virtual audience for these rounds. Applications were made available within the week of July 28, in order to maintain safe working conditions, with Universal Studios Hollywood chosen as the venue for performances to take place within. This included an expansion in the number of quarter-finalists for the season, an additional quarter-final, and a change to the number of semi-finalists that each quarter-final had. Prior to the first quarter-final's live broadcast, Cowell had an accident that left him with a severe back injury. After undergoing surgery to help repair the damage, he stepped-down from the live episodes until doctors approved his return. Guest judges appeared during Cowell's absence for the first two quarter-finals, before deciding to have the remaining live episodes stick to using a judging panel of three.
Of the participants who auditioned for this season, forty-four secured a place in the live quarter-finals, with eleven quarter-finalists in each one. Among these included: singer Roberta Battaglia, choir Voices of our City Choir, spoken word poet Brandon Leake and singer Cristina Rae and dance group W.A.F.F.L.E. Crew, who had each received a Golden Buzzer from the main judges and host. About twenty-two quarter-finalists advanced and were split between the two semi-finals, with ten semi-finalists securing a place in the finals. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this season:
| Wildcard Semi-finalist | Golden Buzzer Audition
ParticipantAge(s) GenreActFromQuarter-FinalResult Alan Silva 38 Acrobatics Aerialist Las Vegas 3 Alex Hooper 35 Comedy Comedian Baltimore, Maryland 4 Alexis Brownley & The Puppy Pals 9 Animals Dog Act Weston, Florida 2 Annie Jones 12 Singing Singer Victoria, Australia 3 Archie Williams 59 Singing Singer Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1 BAD Salsa 16 & 21 Dance Salsa Dance Duo India 2 Bello & Annaliese Nock 51 & 23 Danger Daredevil Duo Sarasota, Florida 1 Bello Sisters 14-22 Acrobatics Acrobatic Trio Italy 4 BONAVEGA 31 Singing Singer Toledo, Ohio 2 Bone Breakers 22–24 Acrobatics / Dance Contortion Dance Group Conakry, Republic of Guinea 3 Brandon Leake 27 Variety Poet Stockton, California 4 Brett Loudermilk 31 Danger Sword Swallower North Carolina 1 Broken Roots 38 & 44 Singing / Music Singing & Guitarist Duo Chicago 4 C.A. Wildcats 13–29 Acrobatics / Dance Cheerleading Group Dallas 4 Celina Graves 30 Singing Singer San Diego, California 4 Cristina Rae 30 Singing Singer Nashville 3 Dance Town Family 8-35 Dance Dance Group Miami 3 Daneliya Tuleshova 14 Singing Singer Almaty, Kazakhstan 2 Divas & Drummers of Compton 3-20 Dance / Music Dance & Percussion Group Compton, California 4 Double Dragon 32 Singing Singing Duo San Francisco 1 Feng E 13 Music Ukulelist Taipei, Taiwan 1 FrenchieBabyy 25 Acrobatics / Dance Contortionist Dancer Fairfield, California 1 Jonathan Goodwin 40 Danger Daredevil Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom 2 Kameron Ross 30 Singing Country Singer Dallas 2 Kelvin Dukes 14 Singing Singer Burtonsville, Maryland 2 Kenadi Dodds 15 Singing / Music Singer & Pianist Salt Lake City, Utah 4 Lightwave Theatre Company 32–35 Variety Puppeteer Group Bucharest, Romania 4 Malik Dope 27 Music Drummer Washington, D.C. 3 Max Major 33 Magic Magician Las Vegas 3 Michael Yo 45 Comedy Comedian Houston 1 Noah Epps 12 Dance Dancer Virginia 4 Nolan Neal 39 Singing / Music Singer & Guitarist Nashville, Tennessee 3 Pork Chop Revue 9-68 Animals Pig Act Miami 1 Resound 26–30 Singing Vocal Trio Richmond, Virginia 4 Roberta Battaglia 11 Singing Singer Toronto 1 Shaquira McGrath 26 Singing Singer Kennesaw, Georgia 1 Sheldon Riley 21 Singing Singer Sydney, Australia 3 Simon & Maria 12 & 10 Dance Salsa Dance Duo Colombia 1 Spyros Brothers 23 & 25 Variety Diabolo Duo New York City 2 The Shape 15–19 Dance Dance Group Alhambra, California 2 Thomas Day 17 Singing Singer Brentwood, California Usama Siddiquee 29 Comedy Comedian New York City 3 Vincent Marcus 32 Comedy / Music Impressionist Los Angeles 2 Voices of our City Choir 21–80 Singing Choir San Diego 2 W.A.F.F.L.E. Crew 23–26 Dance Dance Group New York City 3
Ages denoted for a participant(s), pertain to their final performance for this season. This act initially failed to pass through the Judge Cuts stage, but was later brought back for the quarter-finals after a quarter-finalist was forced to drop out. This participant initially pulled out from the contest for health reasons before the quarter-finals, but later returned as a Wildcard act for the semi-finals after being given the all clear by producers.
Quarter-finals summary Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |
Quarter-final 1 (August 11) Guest Performers, Results Show: Mat Franco and Kodi Lee
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 12) Pork Chop Revue 1 Feng E 2 Shaquira McGrath 3 Simon and Maria 4 FrenchieBabyy 5 Bello & Annaliese Nock 6 Roberta Battaglia 7 Michael Yo 8 Double Dragon 9 Brett Loudermilk 10 Archie Williams 11
Kelly Clarkson filled in for Simon Cowell while he recovered from a back injury sustained prior to August 11.
Quarter-final 2 (August 18) Guest Performers, Results Show: Darci Lynne and Jabbawockeez
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 19) Kelvin Dukes 1 The Shape 2 Kameron Ross 3 BAD Salsa 4 Vincent Marcus 5 Alexis Brownley 6 BONAVEGA 7 Spyros Brothers 8 Daneliya Tuleshova 9 Jonathan Goodwin 10 Voices of our City Choir 11
Kenan Thompson filled in for Simon Cowell while he continued to recover from a back injury sustained prior to August 11.
Quarter-final 3 (August 25) Guest Performer, Results Show: Jon Dorenbos
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (August 26) Dance Town Family 1 Nolan Neal 2 Usama Siddiquee 3 W.A.F.F.L.E. Crew 4 Annie Jones 5 Malik Dope 6 Max Major 7 Bone Breakers 8 Sheldon Riley 9 Alan Silva 10 Cristina Rae 11
Dance Town Family were later brought back as a Wildcard act for the Semi-finals.
Quarter-final 4 (September 1) Guest Performers, Results Show: Cam and Duo Transcend
Quarter-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (September 2) C.A. Wildcats 1 Kenadi Dodds 2 Lightwave Theatre Company 3 Resound 4 Divas & Drummers of Compton 5 Celina Graves 6 Noah Epps 7 Alex Hooper 8 Broken Roots 9 Bello Sisters 10 Brandon Leake 11
Semi-finals summary Buzzed Out | Judges' choice |
Semi-final 1 (September 8) Guest Performers, Results Show: Piff the Magic Dragon, David Copperfield, and Ndlovu Youth Choir
Semi-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (September 9) Double Dragon 1 Dance Town Family 2 Broken Roots 3 Spyros Brothers 4 Thomas Day 5 Alan Silva 6 Shaquira McGrath 7 Brandon Leake 8 Malik Dope 9 Archie Williams 10 Roberta Battaglia 11
Semi-final 2 (September 15) Guest Performers, Results Show: BTS and Colin Cloud
Semi-FinalistOrderBuzzes and Judges' votesResult (September 16) W.A.F.F.L.E. Crew 1 Kenadi Dodds 2 Max Major 3 Bello Sisters 4 Celina Graves 5 Jonathan Goodwin 6 Cristina Rae 7 BAD Salsa 8 Voices of our City Choir 9 Brett Loudermilk 10 Daneliya Tuleshova 11
Due to the majority vote for BAD Salsa, Klum's voting intention was not revealed.
Finals (September 22–23) Guest Performers, Finale: David Dobrik, Detroit Youth Choir, Meghan Markle, and Usher
FinalistPerformed with(2nd Performance)Result (September 23) Alan Silva Bishop Briggs and Deadly Games Archie Williams Marvin Winans BAD Salsa V.Unbeatable Bello Sisters Bishop Briggs and Deadly Games Brandon Leake N/A Broken Roots Blake Shelton Cristina Rae OneRepublic Daneliya Tuleshova Ava Max Kenadi Dodds JP Saxe and Julia Michaels Roberta Battaglia JP Saxe and Julia Michaels
Alan Silva and Bello Sisters conducted a joint routine for their second performance, and thus shared the same guest performers. Kenadi Dodds and Roberta Battaglia conducted a joint routine for their second performance, and thus shared the same guest performers.
Ratings
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