The world’s biggest talent show, America’s Got Talent (AGT), concluded its 12th season last week by crowning 12-year-old singing ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer the winner.

The world’s biggest talent show, America’s Got Talent (AGT), concluded its 12th season last week by crowning 12-year-old singing ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer the winner.

Farmer, the third ventriloquist to win the show, won $1 million in prize money and is set to headline her own show in Las Vegas. But, based off of trends amongst the previous seasons’ winning acts, that’s about as far as her talent will take her.
One thing the winners of reality shows like AGT and American Idol have shown us is that after they win, American reality stars tend to peak briefly before relegating back to unfamiliarity.

During season nine of AGT, magician Mat Franco’s popularity exploded via YouTube and other social media outlets after his initial audition and subsequent winning of the show. But other than one NBC special in 2015, the world hasn’t heard much from Franco since.

Now, magicians don’t get as many opportunities to make it as big as singers do, but look at the first six seasons of AGT: Five of the six winners were singers and not one is a household name today.

The majority of contestants on these shows don’t build off of their five seconds of fame, but a select few from the former hit competition series American Idol have generated a lot of success from their time on the show.
From winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson, to other finalists such as Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry, this show has produced some success stories.

But most American Idol winners fade, too, and virtually every winner of The Voice has failed to make it big.
Yet the shows bill themselves as American hit-makers and it seems that these shows fail to do what they promise.
I have been an avid fan of AGT since season four, and I enjoy watching the unique acts take the stage week after week.
But when I look at the bigger picture, it’s disheartening to realize that these acts are primarily exposed to the public to generate buzz for the show, not prepare their stars for a future career in the big time.

There is still a chance a contestant can break through and reverse this trend. Last year’s AGT winner, Grace Vanderwaal, has begun to chip away at the downward trend of AGT contestants.

Vanderwaal signed a recording contract with Columbia Records shortly after winning the television show, and her first EP, Perfectly Imperfect, was the best-selling EP of 2016.

Recently, Fox announced an upcoming reality show being kick-started by DJ Khaled and Diddy, called The Four. This is Fox’s effort to revitalize the success of singing competitions.

The show is instigating a new formula that may ensure future success for the eventual winner.

The Four will feature Khaled and Diddy as the producer and mogul for the eventual winner, and two other icons in the music industry will work as a songwriter and performer to help the show’s winner achieve success.

American Idol produced a fair share of household names in the music industry, and Fox is hoping this new hip-hop idol search will begin to flip the switch on the preconceived pattern of minimal success amongst reality competition show winners.
These hard-working performers deserve nothing less than to continue their promising careers.

But who is to blame for this unfortunate trend? Is it the fault of the show, or of an intensely competitive show business environment that these amateurs are thrown into?

Perhaps it’s a bit of both. But as ratings of these shows remain strong, it’s clear that we will keep watching.