‘America’s Got Talent’: Heidi Klum joins Howard Stern, panel as surprise judge

If you remember back to last fall, there were some sources from “America’s Got Talent” that were whispering that NBC and Simon Cowell were interested in adopted a four-person panel similar to what the show in Britain had this past season. Then, we heard nothing else about it as the show struggled to replace Sharon Osbourne. Ultimately, they decided to appoint former Spice Girl Mel B to the panel, which seemed to be a perfect fit thanks to her brutal honesty.

According to TMZ, it turns out that there was some truth to that four-judge rumor, after all, as “Project Runway” host Heidi Klum has been added to the panel at the last second. This booking comes completely out of left field for a number of reasons, with the primary one at the moment being the sole fact that the show would seemingly want to save money after paying Howard a huge amount of cash along with the declining ratings for reality competition shows in general.

In specifically talking about Klum, hopefully she will give the show an upbeat and encouraging voice to go along with three judges that have a tendency to be very critical. While she is known more as a model than an entertainer, Klum has been in the entertainment industry for long enough to really know just what it takes to be successful, and how sometimes talent can transcend just a single ability.

Now, let’s just hope that the winner of the show this year is someone that will actually be relevant a couple of years down the road. Terry Fator is really the only champ that people still talk about, and courtesy of his show in Las Vegas he is now one of the most-successful reality TV winners of all time.

What do you think about Klum being on the panel?  If you want to read a little bit more about the Mel B hire, you can do so by checking out the story over here.

Photo: NBC