TV tip: "America's Got Talent"

NBC

The best thing about Howard Stern joining the judging panel for the seventh season of AGT is that more folks will get to see what some of us have known for years - that this is the best talent show on TV. In his debut Monday, Stern was a cleaner version of his shock jock personality but still laugh-out-loud funny. That the very first act he had to judge was a stripper magician was genius programming. While the show is better with Stern replacing Piers Morgan, it has always produced more laughs, gasps and tears in one show than "American Idol" or "X Factor" do in a season. The closing act Monday - father-daughter street performers singing "You've Got A Friend" - even had Howard teary-eyed.

- TIM COTTER