American Idol Rejects Season 6

'America's Got Talent' returns

With a hushed studio audience of about 1,100, a TV production crew and a trio of celebrity judges anxiously watching, Professor Splash studies an inflatable kiddie pool 20 feet below.

Splash — aka Darren Taylor — has several world records as a shallow-water diver. But the leap he’s about to make is as much about money as defying bodily harm. Taylor hopes the dive into foot-deep water will propel him beyond the other acts auditioning here for a spot on America’s Got Talent , NBC’s variety-act competition series returning for a sixth season tonight (8 ET/PT).

AGT may resemble the gaggle of song, dance and comedy competition shows that litter TV’s reality landscape. But with no age restrictions and few limits on talent, actual or otherwise, it smacks of both The Gong Show and Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour — a mixture of pure entertainment, goofball comedy, freak-show audacity, jaw-dropping amazement and heart-tugging sincerity.

The formula has made AGT among summer’s top-rated shows since its 2006 debut, with average viewership climbing to about 13.3 million viewers last season from 10.9 million in Season 1. Increasingly, the series is also providing a burgeoning star-making platform for singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and performance groups.

Taylor has fetched up to $22,000 for his dives. But Talent is covering only Taylor’s expenses for the Houston audition, not the two bikini-clad models he decided to hire and fly in from Denver to add some sex appeal to his act.

“I’m losing money being here. But I’m hoping for a big payoff,” he says. “Believe me, you can’t buy this kind of publicity with a show like this.”

Taylor hopes AGT will lead him to the kind of success Terry Fator found. The impressionist/ventriloquist/singer toiled largely at schools, fairs, festivals and other small-time gigs for more than 20 years before appearing, and eventually winning, AGT’ s second season. That led to Fator’s first booking in Las Vegas, a gig at the Hilton, followed by the most lucrative deal in reality competition show history: a five-year, $100 million contract to headline at The Mirage.

“I didn’t expect to win, but I went in with a plan: This would go on my promotional stuff to get more shows and make more money,” says Fator, 45. “But things began to snowball. This show can and will change your life forever.

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