The votes are in, and America’s Got Talent has crowned a new winner for season 21.
During the Wednesday, September 23, season finale of NBC’s reality show, host Terry Crews announced that singer Nene Royal received the most votes from viewers and was named the $1 million champion. Magician Geno Ploeger came in second while magic group Hundred Fingers rounded out the top 3.
Trisha Paytas and Taylen Biggs served as correspondents for the live finale, which featured performances from Josh Groban, Linkin Park, REI AMI, Chloe Flower, Steve Aoki, Jessica Sanchez and Mat Franco.
Just one day earlier, 10 acts took to the stage at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California, in hopes of wowing judges Sofía Vergara, Mel B, Howie Mandel and guest judge KSI. (Simon Cowell missed the live shows as he recovered from an undisclosed procedure.)
From dance crews and magicians to singers and dog acts, viewers at home had a large variety of talent to choose from in season 21.
“There are so many good people,” Sofía, 54, exclusively told Us earlier this month after the semi-finals. “There’s so much good talent this season that I think I’m going to be very happy with whoever America votes to win.”
Terry, 58, was more than impressed with the magicians, who blew the audience away week after week.
Nene Royal Trae Patton/NBC
“The power of magic has come through, and remember when you go to Las Vegas, you see nothing but magic AGT,” Terry previously told Us. “From Hundred Fingers to Geno Ploeger, it’s endless all this magic that’s always coming.”
Season 21 of NBC’s competition show was filled with so much competition that fan favorites like comedian Daniel Alvarez and Dancing With the Stars singer Travis Garland were sent home before the finale.
The amount of talent is just one of the many reasons why Howie, 70, keeps coming back to the show — and has earned the title of longest-running judge on AGT.
“I do love this job. I’ll tell you this honestly. I mean, I probably shouldn’t say this because I would like to keep this job as long as possible, but it doesn’t feel like a job,” Howie previously told Us. “I’ve said this many times before, but it was airing for four years before I got on it. I never missed an episode.”
The comedian continued, “I don’t think I’m doing anything different today than I was doing from my own couch with no pants on. I’d be sitting there eating snacks in my underwear, watching people dance, going, ‘Do you think that was good, honey? I didn’t love that.’ And all of a sudden, they’ve given me pants and a paycheck and a better seat, and I’m doing the exact same thing.”
America’s Got Talent airs on NBC with past episodes available to stream on Peacock.
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