The World's Best

The World's Best is an American reality talent competition television series that aired on CBS. Created by Mark Burnett and Mike Darnell, and hosted by comedian James Corden, the series featured performers being evaluated by three judges and the "Wall of the World"—an international panel of 50 experts in various forms of entertainment.

It premiered on CBS on February 3, 2019; its first and only season was won by Indian pianist Lydian Nadhaswaram.^[2]

Production

CBS ordered The World's Best in February 2018; CBS SVP of alternative programming Sharon Vuong credited Mark Burnett and Mike Darnell's experience in the reality genre, stating that they "understand how to create compelling competition and build enduring franchises", and that it would be a "unique, original format with global scale".^[3] Darnell felt that The World's Best was "the next new spin on a variety show", and defended comparisons to a competitor, NBC's America's Got Talent (which, in May, would announce an all-star spin-off series, America's Got Talent: The Champions)^[4][5] by emphasizing its "dramatic" scoring system and international focus as differentiating it from other talent competition series.^[6] James Corden, then-host of CBS's The Late Late Show, would serve as host.^[7]

Format

Each act is judged by three main judges of American origin, as well as the "Wall of the World" — an international panel of 50 experts in various fields of entertainment.^[8] Each judge scores a performance on a scale from 0 to 50, while each member of the Wall panel can give a yes or no vote. The average of the judges' scores, and the number of votes given by the Wall, are totaled into a maximum possible score of 100.

Acts who achieved at least 75 points advance to the Battle round, where the acts are paired into duels against each other. In each battle, the judges score the acts in a similar manner to the audition round, but the Wall votes between the two acts instead.

In the Champions round, the twelve acts who advanced from the battles are grouped into four divisions (consisting of solo and group competitions in "Music" and "Variety" categories) with three acts each. The act with the lowest score from the American judges is automatically given third place, and a finalist is determined between the remaining two with the main judges' score and the Wall's votes, in the same manner as the Battle round. The winning finalists in each category also each receive a $50,000 prize.

In the finale, semi-final performances are conducted between the solo and group champions in the Music and Variety categories. The winners of each advance to the finals to determine the champion, who wins a $1,000,000 grand prize.

Broadcast

The World's Best premiered on February 3, 2019, following the conclusion of CBS' coverage of Super Bowl LIII.^[1][9]

In August 2019, CBS president of entertainment Kelly Kahl stated that the network had not yet decided whether The World's Best would be renewed for a second season. Kahl explained that the network "enjoyed the show creatively", but that they would "probably tweak the format a little" if renewed.^[10] As of April 2021, CBS had not renewed the series.^[11]

Panelists

The members of the "Wall of the World" include:^[12]

Season 1 (2019)

Auditions

• The act received enough points to advance to the next round
• The act did not receive enough points to advance to the next round

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Battle Rounds

• The act won the battle and advanced to the next round
• The act lost the battle and did not advance to the next round

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Champion Rounds

• The act won the category and advanced to the next round
• The act came in second in the category and did not advance to the next round
• The act finished in third place after receiving the lowest rating from the American judges
• The act decided to withdraw from the competition

Finale

Elimination Table

• Emotional Line and Space Cowboy were brought back to the Battle Rounds to fill out The Top 24.

Ratings

Contestants who appeared on other shows

• Sister Cristina Scuccia won the second season of The Voice of Italy^[20] and competed in the 14th Italian version of Dancing with the Stars, where she made it to the semifinals.
• Daneliya Tuleshova represented Kazakhstan at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 finishing in sixth position.^[21] She participated in The Voice Kids Ukraine in 2017 and won, and also, in 2018 she won "BRAVO AWARDS" in Russia. She later went on the fifteenth season of America's Got Talent, where she made it to the finale.
• Dimash Kudaibergen was the 2015 Grand Prix champion of the International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar. He then became runner-up during the fifth season of China's I Am a Singer.
• Enkh Erdene was the second season winner of Mongolia's Got Talent.
• Jordan McKnight competed on the tenth season of America's Got Talent, where she passed through the auditions but did not make the Top 80.
• Krystyna & Princess appeared on the ninth series of Britain's Got Talent, where they passed through the auditions but did not make the Semifinals.
• Matt Johnson made it to the semifinals in series 12 of Britain's Got Talent.
• Space Cowboy competed on multiple seasons of Australia's Got Talent, most recently in 2019.
• TNT Boys won the second season of Philippines' Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids; then appeared on Little Big Shots, Little Big Shots UK, and the Little Big Shots Australia, Little Big Shots (China) in 2018.
• William Close competed on the seventh season of America's Got Talent. He finished in third place.
• Liliac, like Daneliya, also competed on the fifteenth season of America's Got Talent. After passing the auditions, the band posted a YouTube video that revealed they had to withdraw before the second round after they were asked to sign a contract that would entitle the show to 99% of their profits over a 5-year period.

References

1. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (17 October 2018). "'World's Best': CBS' Talent Competition Series Gets Post-Super Bowl Premiere". Deadline. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
2. ^ Barney, Chuck (2019-03-14). "‘The World’s Best’: And the winner is …". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2025-02-07.
3. ^ Otterson, Joe (2018-02-07). "CBS Orders Competition Series 'The World's Best' From Mark Burnett, Mike Darnell". Variety. Retrieved 2019-04-18.
4. ^ Haring, Bruce (May 12, 2018). "America's Got Talent Adds Winter Championship Series To NBC Schedule". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on May 12, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
5. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (May 12, 2018). "NBC Sets Winter Edition of America's Got Talent". Variety. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
6. ^ Low, Elaine (2019-01-30). "'The World's Best' Producers Bullish on Challenging 'America's Got Talent'". Variety. Retrieved 2019-04-18.
7. ^ CBS Boston (October 8, 2018). "CBS Announces 'The World's Best' In 2019". WBZ-TV. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
8. ^ Delbel, Julia (3 Feb 2019). "Meet 'The World's Best' Wall of the World Experts!". Talent Recap. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
9. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (February 7, 2018). "CBS Orders 'The World's Best' Global Talent Competition Reality Series From Mark Burnett & Mike Darnell". The Hollywood Reporter. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
10. ^ White, Peter (2019-08-01). "'The World's Best': CBS Would "Tweak Format" If Renewed But No Decision Yet – TCA". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
11. ^ Ausiello, Michael (2019-11-14). "Cancellation Buzz: Are These 9 Bubble Series Dead or Alive?". TVLine. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
12. ^ CBS (2018). "Meet The World's Best Experts From Around The Globe". CBS. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
13. ^ Welch, Alex (February 5, 2019). "Super Bowl LIII adjusts up, 'The World's Best' adjusts down: Sunday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on February 5, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
14. ^ Welch, Alex (February 7, 2019). "'The World's Best,' 'Riverdale,' 'Chicago Fire,' all other shows hold: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on February 8, 2019. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
15. ^ Welch, Alex (February 14, 2019). "'Chicago Fire' adjusts down: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on February 15, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
16. ^ Welch, Alex (February 22, 2019). "'The Masked Singer' adjusts up, 'The World's Best' and 'Match Game' adjust down: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on February 22, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
17. ^ Rejent, Joseph (February 28, 2019). "'The World's Best' adjusts down: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on March 1, 2019. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
18. ^ Welch, Alex (March 7, 2019). "'American Idol' adjusts up: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on March 8, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
19. ^ Welch, Alex (March 14, 2019). "'Empire,' 'Chicago Med' rerun adjusted down: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
20. ^ "Singing nun Sister Cristina wins Italy's The Voice final". BBC News. 2014-06-05. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
21. ^ "Final of Minsk 2018 - Eurovision Song Contest". junioreurovision.tv. Retrieved 2025-02-09.