Imagine if you had a quirky hidden talent and you didn't have a stage to show off your skills. Imagine if you got the stage and the audience to show the world what you could do and then, all of a sudden, someone was offering you a $100 million contract to perform in Vegas. That's exactly what happened to Terry Fator, a ventriloquist from Dallas, Texas after winning the second season of NBC's America's Got Talent, hosted by Jerry Springer and judged by Sharon Osborne, Piers Morgan, and "The Hoff", David Hasselhoff. In an instant, Fator went from just another "average Joe" who could throw his voice to high-profile Vegas act. The most important factor, though... Terry Fator was an undiscovered talent that was definitely good enough to play Vegas.

Now that the summer is upon us, the third season of America's Got Talent premieres on Tuesday, June 17 with a whole new crop of contestants hoping to show off their talents, no matter how offbeat or legit. At the end of last week, The Deadbolt took part in a conference call with show host Jerry Springer and judge Sharon Osborne to find out what's to come in season three, what it means to be talented as compared to earlier generations, the spectacle of entertainment and how technology has helped Barack Obama, and who Jerry Springer was rooting for in season one.

THE DEADBOLT: Sharon, what does it mean to have talent in today's entertainment world, as compared to back when Ozzy was still trying making it in the business?

SHARON OSBORNE: It’s a whole different world out there. We’re talking about the difference of forty years here, it’s a whole different world. And today, with TV, somebody can get catapulted from nothing to finding $100 million in Vegas overnight. So today, with talent - I mean if you do have talent, it’s instant fame. That’s the difference. Forty years ago, twenty years ago, you had to pay your dues. You had to tour and tour. And now television, one season you could get $100 million.

JERRY SPRINGER: I think there’s also - it’s the democratization, basically, of the pop culture because of technology. It used to be that people would sit and watch, whether it was watching an athletic event, watching theater, watching a movie, or watching a singer. But because of technology, we, the audience, have become the entertainment. And with the internet - first of all, we have talk shows where the audience became the entertainment. Then you have the internet and kids go to chat rooms and become their own entertainment, and you have YouTube and you have interactive. And now you have these shows where the people are voting, the public is voting one of their own to be the entertainer, and I think what were seeing, thirty [to] forty years ago, like Sharon said, once in a while someone would come out of the woodwork, because just to sustain themselves day after day, in club after club, and finally make it - or someone in the industry would say, "You’re gonna be our next star" and promote the person. Nowadays the public decides who the stars are, and I think that’s part of our whole culture. And television has changed, networks don’t control television so much anymore and the music industry doesn’t control who the stars are going to be anymore, the people are voting.

THE DEADBOLT: Do you think that also applies to the political world given how the presidential race is playing out?

SPRINGER: Absolutely, that’s our whole culture. You could not have had a Barack Obama ten years ago because the leaders of a party would never say, "Senator from Illinois, who’s African American, you will be the nominee of our party." That never would’ve happened. But because of the internet and technology an individual can be known overnight by the masses. You can raise money individually, you can organize independently, so the people built up what you’re going to have. That’s why political parties don’t have power anymore. It’s true with every element of our culture, technology has changed the center of power.

THE DEADBOLT: Sharon, what will it take this year to win, and how will you be looking at the talent differently?

OSBORNE: I look at the talent very differently anyway, from the person who is voting, because I always like to see somebody who knows their craft and has learned their craft and studied well. So I look at somebody totally different, but I hope it’s not a singer that wins. There’s so many shows for singers. Our show is so different. It gives other people who are equally as talented but in a different way a chance.

THE DEADBOLT: How is the talent dynamic different on the British version? Do they approach it differently over there?

OSBORNE: It’s the same. It’s exactly the same. It’s a variety show, so you know everything from animal acts up to opera singers.

THEDEADBOLT: Jerry, which acts were you rooting for the most in the first season?

SPRINGER: Well, I’m such a pansy. I like them all. Honestly, once they get to the finals I become so emotionally invested in them, because, as I say, I spend time with them and their families for the whole week they’re there, or two weeks or whatever it is. And I don’t want to see any of them voted off. I can’t tell you that I had a particular favorite, I really can’t. The ones where this means everything, where you see how much it means to them, all of a sudden I don’t even care very much if they’re talented anymore.

There was this one kid - okay, there was this one young man, who frankly didn’t have a lot of talent and he went fairly far, Shakira, and he got voted because it was kind of a funny act and the people were kind of voting for him. But when I saw him backstage, he and his mom, and they were hugging and crying, I realized - here was a kid who probably his whole life has been teased, never was very popular in school, the whole bit. And all of a sudden for one moment in his life - holy cow - everybody is paying attention. They’re cheering him, there’s producers talking to him, arrangements are being made to fly him to the semi-finals or whatever it was, it was like, "Holy cow, what has happened to this kid’s life? A moment of a victory." In the business, we get so cold about it because we’re blessed to have victories every time we go out on stage - people are cheering us. A kid like this has never been cheered in his life, so I just love that. Those are the people I root for.