East Africa's Got Talent

East Africa's Got Talent
Genre	Talent show
Created by	Simon Cowell
Presented by	Anne Kansiime
Judges	Season 1 Gaetano Kagwa Vanessa Mdee Makeda Jeff Koinange
Country of origin	Kenya
Original languages	English, Swahili
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer	Lee Ndayisaba
Running time	60–120 minutes
Production company	Rapid Blue
Original release
Network	Citizen TV (Kenya) Clouds Media (Tanzania) RTV (Rwanda) NBS TV (Uganda)
Release	August 4, 2019 – present

East Africa's Got Talent (often abbreviated as EAGT) is a talent show competition that is part of the Got Talent franchise owned by Simon Cowell. Season one was produced by South African film production company Rapid Blue, and was broadcast simultaneously across four countries in East Africa; Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. Uganda's brother and sister Esther & Ezekiel were announced winners of the first season on 6th October 2019.

The first episode premiered on August 4, 2019 and seven-year-old Leynah Kagere from Uganda received the show's first golden buzzer. The programme showcases a variety of talents from people of all ages from East Africa, with acts ranging from singing, dancing, comedy, magic, juggling, stunts and other variety genres. Each participant who auditions is hoping to secure a place in the live television finale by impressing a panel of judges and the viewers at home.

Show structure

The show has two rounds of auditions. The first round referred to as, pre-auditions is held across different cities in each participating country. The second round, referred to as, theater auditions are done later at a setting in front of Judges and live audience.

Preliminary Auditions

The pre-auditions were held in major cities in each country which included Nairobi, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Kampala and Kigali.

Theater Auditions

It was feared that the participants made the judges so happy. Concerns were raised about the Burundian drummers about not coming from the four participating countries namely Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. The producers of the show released a statement clarifying that the group members were legal residents of Rwanda and had all the rights to participate as participation was open to anyone from the four countrie

Once a performance is over, each judge will give an overview of what they thought about the act, before casting a vote.

The judges are allowed to use the golden buzzer to send an act directly to the semi finals. Each judge can only press the golden buzzer once throughout the entire season.

Deliberations

After the completion of theater auditions, the judges whittle down the acts to only eighteen to compete in the semi finals.

Live Shows

Finals

The final episode operates using the same format as the semi finals, though this time the winner is determined purely by a public vote, with the finalists attempting to secure more votes than the others by performing a new routine at their best.

The host announces the results with the act gaining more public votes declared the winner. The winner receives a grand prize of 50 000 dollars.

Judges

Season 1 judges were unveiled on the 13th July 2019 and they are;Jeff Koinange a Kenyan TV show host at Citizen TV, former Big Brother Africa contestant and 91.3 Capital FM presenter Gaetano Kagwa from Uganda, Tanzanian singer-songwriter Vanessa Mdee and DJ Contact Makeda from Rwanda.

Auditions

The show has two rounds of auditions. The first round referred to as, pre-auditions is held across different cities in each participating country. The second round, referred to as, theater auditions are done later at a setting in front of Judges and live audience.

Preliminary Auditions

The pre-auditions were held in major cities in each country.

Theater Auditions

Theater auditions were held in Nairobi, Kenya infront of judges and live audience. The judges cast a vote to either eliminate an act or send it through to the next stage.

Golden Buzzer

A judge can also press the golden buzzer which sends an act direct to the semi finals.

The first Judge to press the golden buzzer was Vanessa Mdee for Uganda's 7year old, Leyna Kagere.

Jeff Koinange pressed his second golden buzzer for Tanzania's Team Makochokocho.

The third golden buzzer from Makeda went to Hoziyana Peace (23) from Rwanda.

The last golden buzzer was pressed by Gaetano Kagwa for Uganda's Jehova Shalom Acapella.

Contestants

Eighteen contestants were selected from the theatre auditions. Each week, six contestants took to the stage to secure their spot at the finals, but only two contestants were selected to the finals, one by public voting and another by the judges.

Season 1 Contestants: Semi Finals
Week	Contestant	Golden Buzzer	Finalist	Winner	Country	Ref
Week 1	The Mason 666				Tanzania
	Elisha the Gift				Rwanda
	All Eyes on Us				Uganda
	Jannell Tamara		Yes		Kenya
	Himbaza Club				Rwanda
	Jehovah Shalom Accapella	Yes	Yes		Uganda
Week 2	Lizzy				Tanzania
	Intayoberana		Yes		Rwanda
	Leyna Kagere	Yes			Uganda
	Yada Dance				Kenya
	Tetemesha				Kenya
	Esther & Ezekiel		Yes	Yes	Uganda
Week 3	Jua Kali Drummers				Kenya
	Peace	Yes			Rwanda
	DNA		Yes		Uganda
	Sinaubi				Tanzania
	Spellcast		Yes		Kenya
	Team Makorokocho	Yes			Kenya

Awards

The winner will win $50,000, c.KES 5,000,000.

Controversy

It was feared that the participants made the judges so happy. Concerns were raised about the Burundian drummers about not coming from the four participating countries namely Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. The producers of the show released a statement clarifying that the group members were legal residents of Rwanda and had all the rights to participate as participation was open to anyone from the four countries.