We are looking for one more paper to round out a panel proposal for the Popular Media and Culture Division, ICA conference, June 4-8, 2026, Cape Town. If you're interested, please contact Sue Collins (scollins@mtu.edu) as soon as possible. ICA submission deadline is Monday, November 3. As per the division's guidelines, please send a 150-word abstract for your paper, along with a paper title and a brief bio (less than 100 words).
(Re)visiting Got Talent: Pleasure, Power, and (a)Politics in Reality Talent Show Entertainment
As America's Got Talent recently celebrated the conclusion of its 20th anniversary on air, we seek contributions to a panel exploring the influence and longevity, economic significance, and cultural power of AGT and/or the widely popular Got Talent franchise (Fremantle). Got Talent aired AGT in 2006, which became its first international edition, also providing the playbook for versions in over 70 countries, including Britain's Got Talent in 2007. Distinct from Fremantle's Idol and The X Factor, which feature the mining of professional signing talent, Got Talent showcases amateur performances of any age group across numerous entertainment genres, including singing, dancing, stand-up comedy, magic, ventriloquism, impressionists, acrobatics, contortionists, and more recently, techno-futuristic light and robotic spectacles.
While the conventional tropes of reality formats (e.g., "back-stage" personal narratives; discourses of care in live television production; fantasy of participatory democracy, promise of celebrity/stardom, etc.) remain the staple of the Got Talent brand, we welcome new or extended critical perspectives and research on Got Talent's format evolution, modes of representation, digital distribution, and ideological implications that illuminate its transnational popularity in an increasingly polarized milieu. Paper proposals intersecting with ICA's theme for 2026–"Communication and Inequalities in Context"–are encouraged.
Possible contributions may include, but are not limited to:
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Political economy of transnational talent reality formatting
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Celebrity production, democratization of celebrity
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Fandom, affect, audience practices, cultural labor
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Participatory democracy/culture
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Representation, identity, diversity/marginalization/alterity/disability
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Spectacle and commodification of performance
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Performance, (in)authenticity, exhibitionism/circus/carnival
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Discourses of care in live TV
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Aesthetics of reality scripting, music, visualization
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Production strategies in talent formatting
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Social media strategy/engagement/analytics
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International franchise distribution, brand licensing
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Got Talent history (format, production practices, performances, etc.)
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Sue Collins
Associate Professor
Michigan Technological University
Hancock MI
United States
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