Brandy joins David Hasselhoff (of Knight Rider and Baywatch fame) and Piers Morgan to judge weird and wonderful talent of all sorts on NBC's America's Got Talent.

Simon Cowell, notorious for his critical quips on American Idol, is Executive Producer of the new series.  Regis Philbin hosts the no-holds-barred talent show, which brings us more variety than we can imagine.

Piers Morgan is the Simon of America's Got Talent: a very blunt Brit.  A nice enough chap, but he won't hesitate to tell you that you belong on the end of a pier (or, preferably off the end of a pier).

David Hasselhoff is the one who will kick his feet up and sit back enjoying the show even after the other two have had quite enough; but make no mistake: he's no pushover (as Brandy has discovered).  And, let's say, he has a thing for jugglers!

Brandy was a very interesting choice as a judge.  One of the prerequisites of being a judge is being critical, and speaking critically.  And criticism can really hurt.  Of all the celebrities Simon could have chosen as a judge, Brandy is quite likely the most good-natured and gentle out of the whole lot of them - and she's well-known for this trait.

Therefore, when I found out Brandy was chosen to judge for the show, I mused that Simon had chosen her quite intentionally due to this fact - typical Simon: clever in a slightly demented kind of way.  Of course, on a technical level, Brandy is as qualified as any - it's just that, personality wise, she seemed a rather ironic choice.

Initially, Brandy confirmed the suspicion that her kind personality was going to put her at odds with the task before her.  Quite often, when Brandy knew an act wasn't going to cut it, if she furthermore knew that Piers and David were likely to agree, she'd just leave it to them to say “no”.  In fact, she once had David complain over this tendency.

However, her reluctance to say “no” certainly doesn't indicate weakness; when Brandy is in favour of a performer not liked by the other two, she'll be quite vocal about it.  In fact, there are several contestants who owe getting through the first round to Brandy's persuasiveness.

Brandy's behaviour changed over the course of the first season.  Where initially she was very reserved with any criticism, in the second round she on a number of occasions offered more criticism than the other two.  As one might expect, she's very polite and gentle about it, though (by contrast to Piers' approach of making quips at the contestant's expense).

Brandy is, of course, lovely as always.  (Not to mention, she has the cutest mannerisms.)  As for her hairdo, it's never the same twice.  Every episode, we get to see a new hairdo; alas, so far mostly not the more natural styles I like better myself.

As for the acts, they range from absurd to astounding.  There is quite a bit of genuine talent, mixed with some rather unpredictable oddities, as well as your fair share of utterly deluded contestants.  The first round saw a good lot of ridiculous acts, which at times led to the feeling that it was more of a freak show than a talent show (to borrow Piers' remark).  The second round more resembles what you might have expected out of a talent show, the more ludicrous acts having been eliminated.

The producers have been criticized for having wasted airtime on the most absurd and hopeless of acts in the first round, while not showing the auditions of far more talented acts that made it through to the next round.  However, the off-the-wall acts that didn't make it still made for good entertainment, in a slightly juvenile sort of way.  As for the acts that made it but didn't air, we got the chance to see them later on, anyway.

Some of the acts were so ridiculous as to make one suspect that they were plants.  The best example of this was Jay Myl.  He took himself so seriously for one with such petty skill, that one had to ask, “is this guy for real?”  When he proceeded to take shots at the judges after they X'ed his pitiful nose flute performance, it became more than a little suspicious.  However, if there were plants, by the reactions of the judges, it didn't seem that they knew about it.

As for the judges, they have some antics of their own.  Especially in the first round, they were as entertaining as the acts themselves!  Among other things, they're particularly good at pressing each other's buttons - in the literal sense.  The latter practice has been criticized by some, though one has to admit, it is pretty funny.

One rather bizarre incident involved a transvestite in an over-the-top angel costume, who nervously performed a sword balancing act which was actually quite impressive, aside from one major blunder.  Leonid's slip-up was enough to put off Piers and David.  It was actually rather surprising that the performer didn't injure himself.  Brandy was willing to overlook the error, and wanted to put him through, but the other two would not agree.

In what one can't help but suspect was a staged moment, Brandy had Regis bring Leonid back, and appealed to the other two judges to let him through.  Leonid proceeded to deliver a tear-filled plea, and won the audience over.  Piers agreed to let him through on the grounds that he had the ‘hunger’ of a star.  Leonid didn't make it past the second round.  Ironically enough, Brandy was unimpressed with his next performance.

The first round of America's Got Talent consists of an initial audition, at which the three judges pass talents through by 2/3 majority vote.  The judges have the option during this round of prematurely terminating the performance.  Each judge is given a button that lights a large X above the stage with their name below it.

Once all three judges have X-ed the performance, a buzzer sounds and the audition stops.  The similarity to The Gong Show has been noted by many, and in fact, Simon Cowell himself apparently dubbed it so in his pitch to David Hasselhoff.

Once the act finishes, the judges discuss the audition and vote amongst themselves.  They do this regardless of whether they X-ed the performance or not.  They have been known to put through acts whose performances they X-ed.

The second round, the semi-final round, is handled differently.  The show begins with about 15 acts, only 10 of whom will be allowed to perform.  The judges decide in advance which 10 will perform.  The remaining four or five are out of the competition.

From here forwards, performances are never X-ed; all the acts are allowed to finish.  The judges comment after the performance and press a button to give the act either an X or a check, but this is only an indication of their opinion, and does not carry any immediate effect.

On more than one occasion, a judge has pressed the X when they intended a check, or vice-versa.  Things that make you go, “hmm.”

At the end of the show, the judges choose one of the acts to go on to the finals.  The audience at home chooses a second.  The remaining 8 acts are most likely out of the competition, although they may get a second chance on account of a “wildcard” pick.

The American populus is given a two hour window after the show in which to vote by either phone, text message (for a fee), or via the World Wide Web.  A given person/household may vote for each act up to 10 times.  The voting is intended to be open only to Americans, although some outsiders do have a means of sneaking in votes.     

A shorter show is aired the next day, Thursday, during which the results of the at-home voting are announced.  We're not told numbers; we generally only find out who the top four, top two, and final winner of that vote were, but we don't find out by how much.  During the results show, the act to win the at-home vote will perform.

The results show also features performances by off-the-wall acts that didn't make it into the actual competition.  The studio audience votes for one of these acts each week.  There is an eventual showdown of the winners of these votes, and the bizarre act that wins gets a secondary prize.  A few of these wacky acts have been just as talented as the actual contestants!

While many of the contestants, especially in the first round, didn't present very impressive talent, there were a number of very talented acts in the competition.  While the first round's airtime was dominated by sideshow oddities, the second round proved to be a much more credible competition of some serious talent.

While I initially took interest in America's Got Talent solely due to Brandy's involvement, I have to admit that I got genuinely interested in the competition itself.

One factor that makes this show unique from other competition shows is that it endeavours to compare apples to oranges.  How do you compare a singer to a juggler, or a magician to a dog trainer?  There are two sides to this coin.  On one hand, this incongruence may force arbitrary decisions.  On the other hand, it creates a new degree of uncertainty that makes the show more interesting.

America's Got Talent is a very entertaining, if not 100% serious, reality show with something for everyone.