"Canada's Got Talent" Might Just Kill the Audience With Kindness!

"Canada's Got Talent" host Dina Pugliese with judges Stephan Moccio,
Martin Short and Measha Brueggergosman. (Photo: Andrew MacNaughtan)

"Adjectives were in abundance at the press screening for Canada’s Got Talent. 'Everything about this show is world class,' enthused Scott Moore, the head of Rogers Broadcasting. Performances were variously described as incredible, amazing, mind-blowing and jaw-dropping, and sometimes in combination. It was a carpet-bombing of superlatives. I’d argue that calling any 90-second display of talent amazingly mind-blowing is setting the bar a touch high, but let’s just say that all those involved with City’s new competition show, from the producers to the judges to the host, are quite proud of the result. But Canada’s Got Talent is also something else: nice. In a genre best known for the flameouts of the auditions on American Idol, and the sanctioned abuse provided by judges such as Simon Cowell, the premiere episode was almost bereft of nastiness. Far more often than not, the judges were jumping up and applauding the performers rather than smacking their buzzers. It was unusual. It was unexpected. It seems risky. Can a competition show, so often a mix of performance and acerbic assessment thereof, hold an audience’s interest by being largely … friendly?" [Source] Two more images after the jump.