I think its extremely rude for the audience members to boo the people on stage if they really can't help being bad. They need to think about the fact that if they were on that stage they would feel terrible if someone booed them. This is a disgrase to America and to Americas Got Talent. Booing someone may not make a huge difference in your head but to that person it pretty much means, just give up. I think we should put some common sense into the heads of those jerks for booing people. I hope some of them read this and realize that they really messed up.

It is rude. Someone who was in the audience for a taping said that before they started AGT asked the audience to be very vocal.

It was the same way last year. AGT encourages them to do that.

i just think thats not right

It is tacky!

A lot of these shows tape the booing separately from entertainers being onstage (i.e. a producer tells them to boo and they tape that). The audio is then edited in. That might explain some of the booing, but not all.

That's doubtful in this case. i'm pretty sure they're booing as the act is going on, you can tell by the reaction of the performer.-

I guess that's supposed to make the show more entertaining, but I think it's pretty tacky. I'm sure that most of the people booing don't have the guts to chase after their dreams like the performers do.

Quite true. It also makes me wonder if the audience is somehow cued to boo. Booing is so much a part of this show that my guess is that the producers would want "quality" booing and not some wimpy, half-hearted booing. Thus, my thoughts that it might be cued, although I have no way of knowing if that is true.

Any booing I've seen has been incredibly tacky, but when the cameras show from the side of the stage, you can see the performers on stage while you can see the audience booing. I would just hate to think what those poor people on stage feel like, because I would tend to agree that the booing looks cued.

I'm sure that the audience is coached to be vocal, either boo or cheer depending on how they like the performer. While getting booed by the audience must be very unpleasant for the performers, so would getting X'ed by the judges, I would think. The show hypes the audience as the "4th judge." The only way the audience can make it's opinion knows is by being vocal, unless they were to put in some sort of audience voting mechanism, such as seen on "America's Funniest Home Videos" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" when the audiences vote on those shows.

While I feel for the entertainers, some of the performances are bad, and the audience reactions make the show more enteraining to me. I hope this doesn't make me a bad person.

I partly agree with you. When I watched AGT for the first time, and heard the audience, I was like woah this exactly like the Springer Show. As you say, the judges have the X, I don't think the audience needs to add to their humiliation. Piers already does a good enough job on that. It really is tacky to boo like that, something more reserved for a show like Jerry Springer. The funny thing is, I actually like Jerry Springer. Apart from that mockery of a show, he really seems like an ok guy. I like him alot better than Regis. He seems a little more genuine to me. I can tell he really cares about the contestants, whether they be good or bad. Anyways, I think the audience should cut down on the booing, unless the act is completely ridiculous. It takes a lot of courage to get up there, in front of everybody. People should at least respect. Believe me, they don't need boos to know they're bad. I think three loud X's and the lights blacking out well let them know they suck. If not, Piers always seems to have just to have "the perfect remark" to make them jump off the edge of a bridge after they leave.

It is very obvious that the booing, if not outright cued, is not rational in many cases. I remember one singer from last week saying, "I never got a reaction like that before".

Based on that, I can guarantee you that if someone has been getting up in front of crowds for a significant amount of time, they are going to know a rational crowd from an irrational one. That's why it would be foolhardy for many performers to take negative reactions from this crowd with any seriousness. The situation is more scripted than spontaneous.

We can't even be sure the booing is actually coming from the audience. In pro wrestling they sometimes pipe boos and cheers through the sound system at live events. This does 2 things: it gives the audience a cue as to what is expected of them, and it ensures the good guys get cheers and the bad guys get booed. The show has given me no reason to believe that they are not doing the same thing either live at the show or later in post production.

People, in general, are relatively easy to manipulate in this way. Don't believe me? Try watching a sitcom with a laugh track and then watch one that doesn't have one. Assuming the writing is equal, more people will laugh/enjoy the show with the laugh track. Personally, I hate laugh tracks because I don't like being told when I should laugh; plus it seems like a lack in faith of your show.

,Matt

Excellent viewpoint...I agree entirely about the boos possibly being piped in to cue the crowd. That would explain a lot.

That Booing and making X signs is so stupid.As if it is more of a Jerry Springer show than a family friendly entertainment show.I am not letting my kids watch this show anymore.That kind of disrespectfulness is not exceptable in my eyes.

Another good point. Kids that would do this in school would be sent to the principal's office.

Please don't blame Jerry for either the booing or Xs, those are halmarks of the show that came long before him. You can however assess blame to him for bringing the whole "Jerry" chant to the show... though I think that blame should be shared with the producers as they had to have forseen that sort of behavior would happen with him as a host even without his encouragement.

I honestly think he's getting a bad rap (even worse than Piers). He is doing a good job as host, he hasn't incited any sort of crowd riot, he's just trying to have fun as the host. I'll admit that some of the things he's done, Regis would not have (i.e. shirtless Jerry) but nothing he has done so far has been anything other than a way to be entertaining and a good host for the show.

People can we be realistic? How many complaining about the booeing have ever performed on stage on a regular basis?

If you have ever performed for an extended period of time you would find there are people in the real world who boo acts all the time and not for a television camera. There are acts that are literally shushed and rushed off stage because of the audience reaction.

This is not a new phenomena either. In the early 20th Century, they used a hook. Audience members would even throw tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits at the performers. This is not just something that occurred in cartoons. It was reality.

If the performers who believe they have the talent worth a million dollars can't stand up to the boos, they don't have what it takes to make it in the entertainment industry. It's a dog-eat-dog business. And audiences quite often can be quite unkind.

Just my 2 cents.

I've performed in front of plenty of crowds, and have attended a number of performances. The situation you describe may happen, but I have to believe that it would be very infrequently. Even if the booing took place after the act were finished it would make more sense than doing it while they were onstage.

Don't forget that performers for AGT were selected beforehand to appear onstage. They had to pass some sort of "test" to get there. It's not like they are just coming out of the audience to perform.