My DVR didn't record it and I can't seem to find the premiere for download. Ah well, I'm sure Youtube clips are out there.
I saw about 10 mins. of the 2nd night - and I thought it was *awful*. Howard wasn't terrible or even bad, though. But he says "obvious" things: "I'm discovering San Francisco has unique talent."; or "I thought you'd have a heart attack up there." These seem kind of generic, but, hey, it's only the 2nd night.
In all fairness to the show, what I saw was a cross-dresser in some sort of showgirl outfit, followed by old guys jumping over each other, and a guy playing a flute that was also a broom. This is not really my cup of tea.
Mostly, I think what I found so bad, was the editing - it seemed so random! A quick flash of Sharon clapping, a quick flash of Howie grinning, a quick glance of the "talent" a quick glance of the audience (and the clip they'd often show of the audience was clearly not a simultaneous shot of what was on stage at the time), lotta shots of Howard, lotta shows of Nick, etc. Again, it's only night 2 so I'm sure in Howard's case anyway, he's trying to figure out how to sit, where to look, what to say, etc.
I used to be a longtime So You Think You Can Dance fan, and there is just something about the AGT editing that looked so subpar, compared to SYTYCD or even DWTS or other "talent showcase"-type shows. I was really surprised by that.
Oh, related to the editing - A LOT of the sound seemed to drown out what the judges would say. There were quite a few occasions in the lone 10 minutes I saw where Howard would start speaking and the end of his sentence would be completely awash in all the other noise going on. Really seemed amateurish from a technical point of view. Not Howard's fault, but certainly NBC could do a better job. It's almost like they cheaped out.