Dear ‘America’s Got Talent,’ please hire Ant and Dec of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ as new hosts
Earlier today, some pretty shocking news first came out that Nick Cannon may be leaving “America’s Got Talent” after eight years over a joke controversy stemming from a Showtime special. Our feeling is that what he said is really not that big of a deal, and that NBC really shouldn’t have freaked out that much over it in the event that they did given that they’ve certainly had controversial people on this show for years. Remember that Jerry Springer used to be the host, Piers Morgan was at one point the head judge, and that Howard Stern was on it until only a couple of seasons ago.
Overall, this is a show that loves casting controversial people only to then convince them to play nice.
Obviously, our preference would be for Nick and the show to figure out a way to play nice, that way we can have them all continue to work together in perfect harmony. It’s too bad there is no guarantee of that happening, so let’s spend a minute or two here pondering instead the subject of who could host season 12 if Nick is truly gone.
The obvious name is going to by Ryan Seacrest, and it makes sense given his recent connections to NBCUniversal, his previous relationship with executive producer Simon Cowell, and the rumors floating around that “American Idol” could be coming back to the network.
Now, we want to get a little outside of the box in terms of who we’d love to see host the show, at least for Americans. For British viewers, the names Ant and Dec are incredibly familiar. We’d consider them almost the equivalent of Tom Bergeron from “Dancing with the Stars” mixed with Cannon and a hyperactive puppy. They’re witty, funny, high-energy, and they know this show incredibly well having hosted “Britain’s Got Talent” for many years. They’re incredible in the part, and they’ve also witnessed so many great auditions over the years — including that of Susan Boyle.
There are so many hosts out there who view what they do as simply a job and nothing more, but with these guys, you do get a sense of their investment, their passion, and their understanding of what this show is. That’s a challenging thing to do at times since you’re walking such a fine line. You want it to be funny and lighthearted, while at the same time serious when you’re talking about making various dreams come true.
Of course, while we’re at it we could start advocating for getting David Walliams of “Britain’s Got Talent” on board as a guest judge at the very least, mostly because he may be our favorite judge of anything known to mankind. Specifically, we’d hire him to judge frozen pizza if we had the money for him.
Even if “AGT” and “BGT” filming schedules don’t overlap, we figure that this hire is pretty unlikely. The American show may want someone known more to local audiences, and at the same time Ant and Dec do host a wide array of other stuff that may make this difficult to sort out schedule-wise. For us, our feeling is just that we’d be full of glee if there was a way to sort all of this out and make it actually happen.
If Nick is gone, who do you think would be the right “America’s Got Talent” host moving forward? Share in the comments below. (Photo: NBC.)