History YMMV / AmericasGotTalent

** Season 2 was a lot better than the first in many ways. A better idea of how elimination was working, not wasting time calling contestants from the audience, replacing Regis Philbin and Brandy with Jerry Springer and Sharon Osborne respectively, less buzzer BS (Brandy hitting the other people's buzzers on a burlesque act was just disrespectful), etc. Terry Fator, the season's winner, is also arguably the most successful act to come out of the show so far; in 2008, he signed a long-term contract with the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and has been performing there ever since. It was a '''nine figure contract''' (he won a barely seven figure prize, $1,000,000, from ''AGT'').

** Christina and Ali Christensen, a singing duo who made it into the Top 10 on the basis of both of them, as well as their two other sibling, having cystic fibrosis. The two also say that they started performing as a duo for their older sister's funeral.

* UncannyValley: Not in a bad way, but a number of people, including Howie and Sofia, finds season 18's Avantgardey a little scary due to the way they dress themselves like Japanese dolls, with their quirky moves, and their near-perfect synchronization making them seem like creepily unreal. This only adds to their charms, and sets them apart from most other dance groups.

%%** Season 18 was, to put it lightly, not popular. Most fans agreed that the Season 17 format wasn't great but had potential if they fixed the issues of the incredibly long audition rounds. They did nothing to fix that, and to add to that, they chose more novelty acts over ones who were far more deserving. Acts who were agreed to have far more potential than those who made it like Duo Just Two Men went home. The Golden Buzzers had clearly been reduced to just a novelty due to the fact that there were no Judge Cuts, and making it to the live show was the equivalent of getting a Golden Buzzer. Many fans felt they were just handed out to feel good acts over far more talented acts. The finale was widely agreed to have many of the least deserving acts in the show's history, with the third polarizing winner in the past four seasons.

* UncannyValley: Not in a bad way, but a number of people, including Howie and Sofia, finds season 18's Avantgardey a little creepy due to the way they dress themselves like Japanese dolls, their quirky moves, and their near-perfect synchronization making them seem like creepily unreal. This only adds to their charms, and sets them apart from most other dance groups.

** Seasons 15-18, despite the overlap with the previous one, has been vilified for the frequent format changes that have been deemed unnecessary and results in DancingBear acts getting to the live shows over more talented acts. The general consensus is that in the live shows, feel good "safe" acts fare better than far more talented acts. Three of the past four winners are among the most questionable of the entire franchise, all of whom meet that feel good "safe" criteria (Brandon Leake, Dustin Tavella, and Adrian Stoica & Hurricane)

%** Season 18 was, to put it lightly, not popular. Most fans agreed that the Season 17 format wasn't great but had potential if they fixed the issues of the incredibly long audition rounds. They did nothing to fix that, and to add to that, they chose more novelty acts over ones who were far more deserving. Acts who were agreed to have far more potential than those who made it like Duo Just Two Men went home. The Golden Buzzers had clearly been reduced to just a novelty due to the fact that there were no Judge Cuts, and making it to the live show was the equivalent of getting a Golden Buzzer. Many fans felt they were just handed out to feel good acts over far more talented acts. The finale was widely agreed to have many of the least deserving acts in the show's history, with the third polarizing winner in the past four seasons.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Seasons 12-15, due to noticeable bias by both the producers and the judges, with season 15 not even having a consistent judging panel (though this was due to issues past anyone's control) and due to lessened variety in the acts compared to prior seasons.

* SeasonalRot: Season 12 to many. Starting with replacing the beloved Nick Cannon with Tyra Banks, then with many fan-favorite acts being eliminated in Judge Cuts, an overabundance of singers in the semifinals round, the dynamic between the judges getting very raunchy (like throwing water on each other or making a joke towards Mel B's marriage), CharacterShilling that was beyond excessive, a very predictable winner, and said winner being a child nonetheless resulted in a season is considered by many to be incredibly weak.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In Season 6, the auditions were going smoothly, until out of absolutely nowhere, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4_hbYjimAQ this happened]].
** Every time [[CampGay Leonid the Magnificent]] appears is one of these.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Several acts; Grandma Lee in Season 4 was the most successful.

** Christina and Ali Christensen, two decent-but-not-great singers who made it into the Top 10 on the basis of their sob story. You see, they're SISTERS with CYSTIC FIBROSIS and they're GOING TO DIE and Christina's ONLY THIRTEEN and they're SO INSPIRATIONAL.
** Subverted in Season 7 with Tim Poe, who had a bad speech impediment from brain damage he got during military service in Afghanistan. It came out after his audition episode aired that this was a big fat lie, though the show was able to sweep it under the rug because he had been eliminated in Vegas Week anyway.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Season 16 saw the show make some ''long'' overdue changes:
** First, Simon finally stopped giving second chances to singing acts, which had irked fans due to no other kind of act being afforded a second opportunity in their audition.
** Second, "wild cards" were changed so only one contestant would return - each judge (and Terry Crews) would choose one person they wanted to see back, then the audience would vote for which one of them would return. This was likely done to lessen the criticism that wild card contestants had gained in recent seasons for being seen as undeserving {{Elimination Houdini}}s, as the audience would at least have a say in which one would move on.

* HarsherInHindsight: In the 2016 season, football star Jon Dorenbos auditioned in AGT as a magician, to the surprise of those who already knew him as a footballer. When asked by the judges what he's going to do after the show, Jon jokes about needing a backup career because NFL stands for "Not For Long". In 2017, he's diagnosed with aortic aneurysm, and was forced to retire from his football career.

** Matt Mauser was used to promote Season 16, and was a great singer with a heartbreaking story. He was eliminated before the live shows, and lost the Wildcard contest to Storm Large. Even worse, Large's performance in the live shows proved so underwhelming that she failed to make it out of a generally underwhelming heat.

* CreatorsPet: Singing acts. As to be expected from a show by the creator of Series/AmericanIdol, singing acts are blatantly favored by the judges. Frequently getting second chances in auditions, a luxury afforded to no other type of acts, and making up a good 90% of Golden Buzzers for any given season.

* UncannyValley: Jackie Evancho can invoke this. Seeing a professional-level opera singer's voice come from a ten-year-old girl is, for some reason, creepy.
** It was a similar situation with Bianca Ryan in Season 1.
** And also Those Funny Little People. Despite being fairly popular, some people, including Howie (who brought them back in the Wild Card) find them scary because of their odd movements and facial features.
** Turf, the contortionist dancer who auditioned in season 7, is able to twist his body in unusual ways. It's almost unbelievable to see him fold his shoulder blade to the front of his body while twisting his arms around.
** Darci Lynne Farmer from Season 12 takes the issues with Evancho and squares it by adding ventriloquism, including her eyes bulging out on especially operatic notes.
** The Sacred Riana deliberately invokes this, having an ageless-skewed-young appearance, neck and hand twitches, and a low guttural voice that visually contrasts yet perfectly fits her appearance in the horror sense. She also never smiles or speaks when spoken to, making her seem like an otherworldly vessel for...something.
** Courtney Hadwin gives us the sight of a powerful, soulful voice worthy of Janis Joplin or Tina Turner coming out of a skinny, awkward, white British teen. She also ''moves'' exactly like the people she's covering, which numerous fans say makes her look possessed.
** Troy James, a contortionist who takes full advantage of his flexibility in order to unsettle both the audiences and the judges, complete with moving like the girl from ''The Exorcist'', playing discordant music, and smiling creepily.

** Drew Lynch from Season 10 has a terrible stutter due to a vocal cord injury, and is a stand-up comedian who uses a SelfDeprecation style of humor. While his jokes are mediocre and sometimes difficult to understand, he's just ''so'' inspiring and has ''so'' much courage to perform on live television like this, that he made it to the finals over numerous superior acts.
** Calysta Bevier from Season 11 was a pop singer who survived cancer, and America is reminded of her story in her pre-performance package every time. She even got Simon Cowell's golden buzzer, but got the boot in the semifinals.
** ''Angelica Hale'', who comes off like a badly written Disney Channel character, with an almost teeth-itchingly "cute" shtick every package.

* TearJerker: Matt Mauser's audition in Season 16.He revealed that his wife was killed in the 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash - which is better known as ''the crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna Bryant.''

** Many fans believed professional singer Loren Allred’s golden buzzer in the 2022 series was cheating because she sang the song in The Greatest Showman.

* DorkAge: Seasons 12-15 due to noticeable bias by both the producers and the judges, with season 15 not even having a consistent judging panel (though this was due to issues past anyone's control) and due to lessened variety in the acts compared to prior seasons.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In the 2016 season, football star Jon Dorenbos auditioned in AGT as a magician, to the surprise of those who already knew him as a footballer. When asked by the judges what he's going to do after the show, Jon jokes about needing a backup career because NFL stands for "Not For Long". In 2017, he's diagnosed with aortic aneurysm, and was forced to retire from his football career.

** Wheels from AGT Extreme had the performance of, doing a flip off a ramp, not only that he only landed one of his four flips, but his story of being in a wheelchair was ''so inspirational'' he rode that wave to second place.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A major weakness with Season 15 was its inconsistent use of guest judges. Eric Stonestreet appeared at the auditions to replace Heidi Klum when she fell ill, but was only able to fill in for her for a single day, causing the panel to revert to three judges. Later, when Simon suffered a severe back injury just before the live shows, he was replaced by a fourth guest judge for the first two heats (with Kelly Clarkson and Kenan Thompson taking this role) only for AGT to revert back to a three-person panel for the rest of the series, which merely drew more attention to Simon's absence [[note]]for comparison, the live shows for Britain's Got Talent replaced Simon with a single full-time fourth judge -- specifically, Ashley Banjo, a dancer with the third series champion group Diversity, meaning he was well-known to the audience despite being new to judging[[/note]].