The winner on October 1, 1946, was pianist José Melis, who later became a familiar late night television personality as the orchestra leader on Jack Paar's Tonight show.

Other contestants included Tony Bennett, The Blackwood Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Laurie Carroll,[1] Roy Clark, Rosemary Clooney, Ken Berry, Florian ZaBach, Wally Cox, Vic Damone, The Diamonds, Eddie Fisher, Connie Francis, Don Knotts, Steve Lawrence, Al Martino, Barbara McNair, Marian McPartland, Johnny Nash, Leslie Uggams, Lorraine Donahue (who later appeared on The Voice of Firestone), Joe Negri, Roger Williams (pianist), and Jonathan Winters.

The show took a great drop in ratings after orchestra bandleader Archie Bleyer left in the 1954–1955 season, but rebounded as the scouts continued to discover more talent.

However, by the fall of 1957, television audiences began to prefer westerns and adventure shows to quiz programs and Godfrey's ratings dropped out of the top 30 Nielsen Chart.

[4] As with his radio programs, CBS allowed Godfrey to periodically host the show remotely from his Virginia farm while the rest of the cast and guests performed in New York.