Simon Cowell is optimistic about the future of America's Got Talent season 15

Simon Cowell has said he is optimistic about the future of America’s Got Talent during the coronavirus lockdown.

The 15th season of the US reality show will premiere this Tuesday, with auditions filmed before the Covid-19 pandemic necessitated shutting down production.

Live shows for AGT are still scheduled to take place later in the summer, and Cowell has said that he is determined to air them one way or another.

‘We’ve worked out about three different scenarios for how we can shoot the live shows with or without an audience, or a limited audience,’ he told People.

‘The most important thing is that we have to ensure that since people have auditioned, that they do get the chance safely to be able to compete as they normally do, and get that chance to win a million dollars, or at least appear in the final.’

He continued: ‘we have been racking our brains, but I think that the creative solutions that we’ve come up with, I don’t think are going to make the production or the show suffer.

It definitely gives people the opportunity to do what they would normally do every year, and to make sure that we follow through on our promise that they’re going to compete. Someone is going to win a million dollars.’

Ultimately, Cowell says ‘we hope to get back to normal relatively quickly.’

Viewers have already seen one impressive audition from the new series – in the form of Archie Williams, who was previously falsely imprisoned for 37 years.

Archie performed George Michael and Elton John’s seminal duet Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.

He had previously been wrongfully jailed after a 30-year old woman was raped and killed in 1982, before being released on DNA evidence.

America’s Got Talent debuts 26 May on ABC in the US.

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