The objective of America's Got Talent is to be everywhere our audience is. On TV, online, on social media--and even in one of your mother's embarrassing posts she tags you in. Season 12 was the show's highest rated season ever--and we fed that enthusiasm by making sure our audience had immediate Facebook video access to the show's surprising highlights, and extra content. With immediate performance uploads, on air call to actions pushing viewers to Facebook, and our talent/judges/host cross-posting involvement, AGT led the way as the unrecognized record breaker for a network TV show across the digital and social landscape.
Executive Producers invite the digital department to be fully invested and involved in all aspects of the show. It's our strategy to search for, locate, and identify key talent from our shows that will also be most impactful and shared. Every act is produced with the hopes of being a most talked about moment…and viral. Our digital production staff cuts clips from the linear show, and pushes them out on social media in real time. Once that last beat drops…our videos go live on Facebook! By cross posting videos through judge accounts, show accounts, contestants, and local NBC affiliates we orchestrated conversation to get our content in to as many feeds as possible. Leading into an episode week, we also decide on a preview clip that we post on Facebook to get people excited. Our first preview clip of the season saw 100 MILLION views before premiere! We also strategized best use of LIVE video using contestants and the judges/host, and aired a weekly series during the final weeks of our season. The main strategy was to always be the first to share the content, and we were!
As a result of the AGT digital department's efforts, all-time-high broadcast ratings, and popularity online, AGT eclipsed any other network digital stat for a reality competition series with 1.9 BILLION video views on Facebook. Facebook video views accounted for 70% of our total view count across all platforms. Within 24 hours of upload on Facebook, Darci Lynne's golden buzzer audition became the most viewed video in AGT history by hitting 135 MILLION views. For the entire season, that video reached a milestone 265 MILLION views via Facebook. Johnny Manuel, a finalist, also saw his original audition eclipse 200 MILLION views on Facebook. The magnitude to which each video was shared, liked, and commented on catapulted the awareness of America's Got Talent on Facebook. The AGT page saw an increase of 62% in total likes, resulting in 3.7 million fans added. The success didn't only affect the official AGT channels, we saw our contestants and judges' pages grow exponentially due to AGT Facebook video. Host Tyra Banks added 1.3 MILLION fans, while Howie Mandel saw his Facebook likes increase 75% - adding over 300,000 fans! Our Facebook LIVE events even saw views in excess of 1 MILLION. The results are unmatched, and we succeeded beyond the view counts. Adding fans, trending topics, and engagement records are all part of our strategy surrounding Facebook video uploads. In a crowded TV viewing landscape, America's Got Talent dominated the digital world.
