America's Got Talent Season 21 finale: $1 million on the line, 10 facts about the show's 20-year run

America's Got Talent will crown its Season 21 winner on Wednesday, closing a two-night live finale that has pulled 10 acts, from a dancing dog troupe to a robot dance crew, into a race for the show's $1 million grand prize.

For the first time all season, the judge who created the show will not be in the room to see it.

Simon Cowell has been away from the live shows since August while recovering from a back surgery linked to injuries from a 2020 e-bike accident, and NBC has confirmed YouTube star KSI will fill his seat for the finale alongside Howie Mandel, Sofía Vergara and Mel B.


Also read: China's robot dancers limber up for America's Got Talent final

The 10 finalists are dog group Acro Canine Crew, dance crew Come Here, magician Geno Ploeger, magic group Hundred Fingers, singer Lai Noelle, rocker Nene Royal, dog act Olivia Befus, light-up dance group Royal Lasers, robot dance group Unitree and aerialist Veronika Goroshkova.

According to NBC, viewers can vote through the network's website, the AGT app or TikTok comments, with each method allowing up to 10 votes.

As the show heads into its 21st finale, here are some interesting facts to know about America's Got Talent.

1. The American show came first: The Got Talent format was created by Simon Cowell for British TV, but a contract dispute with ITV delayed it. America's Got Talent, launched in 2006, ended up being the franchise's first-ever series, a year before Britain's Got Talent.

2. It's a Guinness World Record holder: Got Talent was declared the world's most successful reality TV format in 2014, with 59 versions running in 58 countries at the time, pushing Strictly Come Dancing into second place.

3. The "$1 million" prize isn't really $1 million: NBC's own end-credits disclaimer says the prize is paid out as $25,000 a year for 40 years, unless the winner takes a smaller lump sum instead.

4. The youngest winner was just 11: Bianca Ryan won Season 1 at age 11 and still holds the record. The oldest winner, Richard Goodall, was 55.

5. One winner first appeared on the show as a child: Season 20 champion Jessica Sanchez competed on AGT's very first season as a kid, then returned nearly two decades later, pregnant with her first child, to finally win.

6. The Golden Buzzer is only 11 years old: It debuted in 2014, in Season 9, purely as a tie-breaker tool for judges. It only became the instant-ticket-to-live-shows moment fans know now the following season.

7. A ventriloquist turned his win into $100 million: Season 2 winner Terry Fator called his post-AGT Las Vegas deal with The Mirage "the biggest deal in the history of Las Vegas up to that point."

Also read: Nene Royal reaches America’s Got Talent final: The 16-year-old Thai singer from Phuket who makes the grand finale with a Live Golden Buzzer

8. It took nine seasons for a magician to win: Mat Franco broke the streak in Season 9. Shin Lim later became the only act to win AGT twice.

9. Dogs have won it twice: Olate Dogs in Season 7, and Adrian Stoica with his Border Collie Hurricane in Season 18. Two dog acts, Acro Canine Crew and Olivia Befus, are in this year's finale too.

10. One audition has 124 million YouTube views: Kenichi Ebina's robotic dance audition from Season 8 remains the most-watched in AGT history.

The Season 21 winner will be revealed when the results show airs at 9 pm ET on NBC, 6:30 am IST Thursday.