America's Got Talent season 12

The twelfth season of American talent show competition series America's Got Talent was broadcast on NBC from May 30 to September 20, 2017. After the previous season, Nick Cannon ended his involvement with the program after a disagreement with the network, and was replaced as host by Tyra Banks before production of the new season began. The guest judges for this season's Judge Cuts stage included Chris Hardwick, DJ Khaled, Laverne Cox and Seal.
The twelfth season was won by singing ventriloquist Darci Lynne with singer Angelica Hale finishing second, and glow-light dance troupe Light Balance placing third. During its broadcast, the season averaged around 12.66 million viewers, becoming the most watched in the program's history to date. A tribute was included in the season for auditionee Brandon Rogers, who had died three months after originally auditioning for the competition.

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Season overview

Open auditions took place in late 2016 within Chicago, Austin, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, San Diego, New York City, Charleston, Memphis and Los Angeles. Online auditions were also accepted. As with the previous year, the judges' auditions were filmed in March and held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles. The Judge Cuts stage of the competition included comedian Chris Hardwick, media personality DJ Khaled, actress Laverne Cox and singer Seal as guest judges.
After eight years of hosting, Nick Cannon faced criticism from NBC over a joke he made on his 2017 Showtime comedy special Stand Up, Don't Shoot, which the network deemed as potentially racist. Cannon determined it was best to leave AGT rather than face the possibility of being fired by the network, announcing his resignation from the program on February 13, 2017. Although the network would not accept his announcement to begin with, the network eventually agreed that his decision was the best course of action under the circumstances, and sought to find a replacement before the new season began. On March 12, television personality Tyra Banks was unveiled as the new host, prior to filming commencing.
Of the participants who auditioned for this season, thirty-six secured a place in the live quarter-finals, with twelve quarter-finalists in each one. Among these included: singing ventriloquist Darci Lynne, singer and ukeleleist Mandy Harvey, singer Christian Guardino, glow-light dance troupe Light Balance and singer Angelina Green, who had each received a golden buzzer from the main judges and host; singer Angelica Hale, singer and guitarist Chase Goehring, singer Celine Tam and soul singer Johnny Manuel, who had each received a golden buzzer from the guest judges; vocal group Final Draft, comic daredevil Bello Nock and video-mappers Oskar and Gaspar, who were chosen as Wildcard quarter-finalists. About twenty-two quarter-finalists advanced and split between the two semi-finals, including dog tricks act Pompeyo Family Dogs, with ten semi-finalists securing a place in the finals. The table lists the results of each participant's overall performance in the season:

Participant	Age	Genre	Act	From	Quarter-Final	Result
Angelica Hale	10	Singing	Singer	Atlanta	1	'
Angelina Green	13	Singing	Singer	Miami	3
Artyon & Paige	9 & 8	Dance	Dance Duo	Murrieta, California	1
Bello Nock	47	Danger	Daredevil	Sarasota, Florida	1
Billy & Emily England	30 & 27	Danger	Rollerskating Duo	Las Vegas	1
Brobots & Mandroidz	16-24	Dance	Dance Group	Torrance, California	2
Celine Tam	9	Singing	Singer	Hong Kong	2
Chase Goehring	21	Singing / Music	Singer & Guitarist	Nolensville, Tennessee	3	'
Christian Guardino	17	Singing	Singer	Patchogue, New York	1
Colin Cloud	30	Magic	Mentalist	Edinburgh, Scotland	3
DaNell Daymon & Greater Works	24-59	Singing	Gospel Choir	Various	3
Darci Lynne	12	Comedy / Singing	Singing Ventriloquist	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	1	'
Demian Aditya	36	Danger	Escape Artist	Jakarta, Indonesia	2
Diavolo	21-39	Acrobatics / Dance	Acrobatic Group	Los Angeles	3	'
Eric Jones	36	Magic	Magician	Philadelphia	2
Evie Clair	13	Singing / Music	Singer & Pianist	Florence, Arizona	2	'
Final Draft	22-26	Singing	Vocal Group	Atlanta	3
In The Stairwell	18-22	Singing	A Cappella Group	Colorado Springs, Colorado	1
Johnny Manuel	32	Singing	Singer	Flint, Michigan	2
Junior & Emily Alabi	31 & 27	Dance	Salsa Duo	Los Angeles	3
Just Jerk	18-27	Dance	Dance Group	Seoul, South Korea	1
Kechi Okwuchi	27	Singing	Singer	Houston	3	'
Light Balance	22-36	Dance	Light-Up Dance Group	Dnipro, Ukraine	2	'
Mandy Harvey	29	Singing / Music	Singer & Ukulelist	St. Cloud, Florida	2	'
Merrick Hanna	12	Dance	Dancer	Encinitas, California	2
Mike Yung	56	Singing	Singer	New York City	3
Mirror Image	16	Singing / Dance	Vocal Duo	Pittsburgh	2	Eliminated
Oscar Hernandez	34	Dance	Dancer	Orange County, California	3
Oskar & Gaspar		Variety	Videomapping Act	Lisbon, Portugal	3
Pompeyo Family Dogs	7-35	Animal	Dog Act	Sarasota	2
Preacher Lawson	25	Comedy	Comedian	Memphis, Tennessee	1	'
Puddles Pity Party	52	Singing	Singer	Atlanta	1
Sara & Hero	22 & 5	Animals	Dog Act	North Bay, Ontario	3	'
The Masqueraders	72-74	Singing	Vocal Trio	Nashville	2
The Singing Trump	56	Singing	Singing Donald Trump Impersonator	Palm Springs, California	1
Yoli Mayor	21	Singing	Singer	Miami	1

Ages denoted for a participant, pertain to their final performance for this season.
Locations for members of this group were not disclosed on the program.
The ages of these participants were not disclosed on the program.
The age denoted here pertains to the owner of the dogs in this act; the age range for the animal group was not disclosed by their owner.
Sara & Hero involved a second dog in their live round performances; the latter value denotes the age of the dog Hero only.

Quarter-finals summary

Quarter-final 1 (August 15)

Guest Performers, Results Show: Grace VanderWaal

Quarter-final 2 (August 22)

Guest Performers, Results Show: Circus 1903

Due to a technical issue, Light Balance's performance was based on their earlier dress rehearsal for the quarter-final.
Demain Aditya's performance suffered from technical difficulties during the live broadcast, due to a fault in the participant's equipment for his routine.
Pompeyo Family Dogs were later appointed as the judges' WildCard semi-finalists.

Quarter-final 3 (August 29)

Guest Performers, Results Show: Mat Franco, Piff the Magic Dragon, and Jon Dorenbos

Semi-finals summary

Semi-final 1 (September 5–6)

Guest Performers, Results Show: The Clairvoyants

Semi-final 2 (September 12)

Guest Performers, Results Show: Absinthe

Due to the majority vote for Diavolo, Klum's voting intention was not revealed.

Finals (September 19–20)

Finalist	Performed with	Result
Angelica Hale	Kelly Clarkson	'
Chase Goehring	James Arthur
Darci Lynne	Terry Fator	'
Diavolo	N/A
Evie Clair	James Arthur
Kechi Okwuchi	Kelly Clarkson
Light Balance	Derek Hough	'
Mandy Harvey	Shania Twain	'
Preacher Lawson	N/A
Sara & Hero	N/A

Angelica Hale and Kechi Okwuchi conducted a joint routine for their second performance, and thus shared the same guest performers.

Ratings

The following ratings are based upon those published by Nielsen Media Research after this season's broadcast:

Show	Episode title	First air date	Timeslot	Rating	Share	Viewers	Nightly Rank	Weekly Rank
1	Auditions Week 1	May 30, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.7	11	12.32	1	3
2	Auditions Week 2	June 6, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.7	11	12.53	1	3
3	Auditions Week 3	June 13, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.6	11	12.70	1	2
4	Auditions Week 4	June 20, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.6	11	12.74	1	1
5	Auditions Week 5	June 27, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.5	10	12.36	1	1
6	Auditions Week 6	July 11, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.5	10	12.59	1	1
7	Judge Cuts 1	July 18, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.5	11	12.57	1	1
8	Judge Cuts 2	July 25, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.6	11	13.08	1	1
9	Judge Cuts 3	August 1, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.8	12	13.33	1	1
10	Judge Cuts 4	August 8, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.7	11	13.32	1	1
11	Quarterfinals, Week 1	August 15, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.8	11	13.44	1	1
12	Quarterfinals, Week 1	August 16, 2017	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	2.1	9	10.89	1	2
13	Quarterfinals, Week 2	August 22, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.6	10	12.76	1	1
14	Quarterfinals, Week 2	August 23, 2017	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	2.0	9	10.84	1	2
15	Quarterfinals, Week 3	August 29, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.6	11	13.13	1	2
16	Quarterfinals, Week 3	August 30, 2017	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	1.9	8	11.07	1	3
17	Semifinals, Week 1	September 5, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	2.6	10	13.29	1	3
18	Semifinals, Week 1	September 6, 2017	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	2.1	8	11.99	1	6
19	Semifinals, Week 2	September 12, 2017	Tuesday 9:00 p.m.	2.3	9	11.57	1	3
20	Semifinals, Week 2	September 13, 2017	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	2.1	8	11.59	1	2
21	The Finals	September 19, 2017	Tuesday 8:00 p.m.	3.0	12	14.70	1	4
22	Season Finale	September 20, 2017	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	3.0	11	15.64	1	2

Specials

Show	Episode title	First air date	Timeslot	Rating	Share	Viewers	Nightly Rank	Weekly Rank
S1	Best of Season 12 Auditions	July 13, 2017	Thursday 8:00 p.m.	1.3	6	7.10	2	10
S2	Road to Finals	August 9, 2017	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	1.3	6	7.01	2	8

Incident

During the season, the show paid tribute to American physician Brandon Rogers, who auditioned for a place in the competition, but died on June 11, 2017, three months after he originally auditioned. His performance was not shown by producers during the audition episodes, as it was felt unwise to do so without consent from his family, but was later aired as a tribute during the Judge Cuts episode that was broadcast on July 11.