How America’s Got Talent, Simon Cowell landed host Tyra Banks

When America’s Got Talent premieres on NBC Tuesday night, host Tyra Banks will be at the center of conversation. This marks her first time in this position on the show, and she comes from a very different background than previous host Nick Cannon. While she absolutely has television experience thanks to America’s Next Top Model, it’s a very different sort of experience than going up, being silly, and having fun with people in the midst of their performances here. This is just a family variety show, and there’s not that much of an expectation at this point that everyone on the show is going to go off and have serious careers.

After Cannon decided to leave the show and the hosting search wasn’t leading to great results, apparently getting Tyra on board was a far easier process than anyone thought. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight in a new interview, Cowell had the following to say about scoring her on the show:

“We started with no host. Then one of us got a phone call saying Tyra Banks was interested. So I told her, ‘Come over to the house tomorrow.’ She turns out, ripped jeans, not really any makeup, sat down and within five minutes, we literally all said, ‘We would love you to join the show.’ It was that quick.”

Apparently, Cowell was THAT confident about Tyra’s skills that he wanted her on board right away; he should at this point understand the value that a great host brings to the show, and how much a rough one can weigh it down. Does anyone remember when Khloe Kardashian and Mario Lopez tried to do the American version of The X Factor together, and that just turned into an unholy mess? At least the first season of that show you had Steve Jones, who was wooden but seemed interested in trying to engage with many of the contestants.

The big test for Tyra won’t actually come until the live shows roll around later in the summer. She’s going to be great when it comes to doing the audition shows, mostly because those are more informal and can be taped in advance. The live format is far more intimidating because you’re responsible for setting the pace of the show. If one thing goes off the rails, there’s a reasonably good chance that everything will.

Are you excited, nervous, or somewhere in between to see Tyra as a part of America’s Got Talent this season? Share now in the comments!

Meanwhile, head over to this link to get some further insight when it comes to the show. (Photo: NBC.)