The World's Best


The World's Best is an American reality talent competition television series that aired on CBS. Created by Mark Burnett and Mike Darnell, and hosted by comedian James Corden, the series featured performers being evaluated by three judges and the "Wall of the World"—an international panel of 50 experts in various forms of entertainment.
It premiered on CBS on February 3, 2019; its first and only season was won by Indian pianist Lydian Nadhaswaram.
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Production

CBS ordered The World's Best in February 2018; CBS SVP of alternative programming Sharon Vuong credited Mark Burnett and Mike Darnell's experience in the reality genre, stating that they "understand how to create compelling competition and build enduring franchises", and that it would be a "unique, original format with global scale". Darnell felt that The World's Best was "the next new spin on a variety show", and defended comparisons to a competitor, NBC's America's Got Talent by emphasizing its "dramatic" scoring system and international focus as differentiating it from other talent competition series. James Corden, then-host of CBS's The Late Late Show, would serve as host.

Format

Each act is judged by three main judges of American origin, as well as the "Wall of the World" — an international panel of 50 experts in various fields of entertainment. Each judge scores a performance on a scale from 0 to 50, while each member of the Wall panel can give a yes or no vote. The average of the judges' scores, and the number of votes given by the Wall, are totaled into a maximum possible score of 100.
Acts who achieved at least 75 points advance to the Battle round, where the acts are paired into duels against each other. In each battle, the judges score the acts in a similar manner to the audition round, but the Wall votes between the two acts instead.
In the Champions round, the twelve acts who advanced from the battles are grouped into four divisions with three acts each. The act with the lowest score from the American judges is automatically given third place, and a finalist is determined between the remaining two with the main judges' score and the Wall's votes, in the same manner as the Battle round. The winning finalists in each category also each receive a $50,000 prize.
In the finale, semi-final performances are conducted between the solo and group champions in the Music and Variety categories. The winners of each advance to the finals to determine the champion, who wins a $1,000,000 grand prize.

Broadcast

The World's Best premiered on February 3, 2019, following the conclusion of CBS' coverage of Super Bowl LIII.
In August 2019, CBS president of entertainment Kelly Kahl stated that the network had not yet decided whether The World's Best would be renewed for a second season. Kahl explained that the network "enjoyed the show creatively", but that they would "probably tweak the format a little" if renewed. As of April 2021, CBS had not renewed the series.

Panelists

The members of the "Wall of the World" include:
CountryContinentJudgeOccupation
Australia

Season 1 (2019)

Auditions

  • The act received enough points to advance to the next round
  • The act did not receive enough points to advance to the next round
Week 1
ActCountryTalentJudge ScoreWall ScoreFinal score
KukkiwonSouth Korea

Battle Rounds

  • The act won the battle and advanced to the next round
  • The act lost the battle and did not advance to the next round
Week 4
Week 5
'''Week 6'''

Champion Rounds

  • The act won the category and advanced to the next round
  • The act came in second in the category and did not advance to the next round
  • The act finished in third place after receiving the lowest rating from the American judges
  • The act decided to withdraw from the competition

Elimination Table

ActCountryTalentPosition Reached
Lydian NadhaswaramIndia

Contestants who appeared on other shows