Why America's Got Talent is not on Tuesday, September 10

Terry Crews, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Simon Cowell on America's Got Talent
(Image credit: Trae Patton/NBC)

Instead of Americans voting for their favorite America's Got Talent season 19 contestant on Tuesday, September 10, they'll be getting more information on who they can vote for as president this Election Day. America's Got Talent is not airing on Tuesday, September 10, as NBC is covering the 2024 presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump from 8-11 pm ET/5-8 pm PT.

However, AGT fans will be happy to know that they won't have to go without the competition this week, as NBC is just shifting its air dates. The semifinal round of America's Got Talent season 19 is going to air on Wednesday, September 11, at 8 pm ET/PT on NBC, followed by the results show at 8 pm ET/PT on Thursday, September 12.

The AGT season 19 semifinals will see 12 acts perform and hope to earn enough votes to move on to the finals. The acts are: Ashes & Arrows, Richard Goodall, Kelsey Jane, Learnmore Jonasi, Solange Kardinaly, Pranysqa Mishra, Roni & Rhythm, Alex Sampson, Sky Elements, Brent Street, Reid Wilson and Young-Min. 

Only six of these acts will be able to move on to the finals, where they will join the four acts that have already advanced to the finals via Golden Buzzers from their quarterfinal appearances: Airfootworks, Hakuna Matata Acrobats, Sebastian & Sonia and Dee Dee Simon.

In order to watch America's Got Talent season 19 semifinals, you must have access to NBC, but there are a couple of ways to get the channel. There are the old-school ways: signing up for a traditional pay-TV provider or having a TV antenna to receive local station signals. Then there’s the more new school approach, which includes live TV streaming services that carry NBC (ie, Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV) or subscribing to Peacock. In the case of the latter, the Peacock Premium Plus plan will allow you to watch NBC’s broadcast of the show live, but you can also watch it on-demand the next day with either Peacock Premium Plus or Peacock Premium.

As for the presidential debate, ABC News is hosting the debate, but NBC and all of the other main broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and Fox) are going to air their own coverage, as are cable news networks like CNN and Fox News. This is the only presidential debate scheduled at this time between Harris and Trump, though a vice presidential debate is slated to take place on October 1.

America's Got Talent season 19 is expected to revert back to its usual Tuesday/Wednesday schedule for this season's finals, set to take place on September 17 and 18.

Michael Balderston

Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca, Moulin Rouge!, Silence of the Lambs, Children of Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars. On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd.