Clip from America’s Got Talent show doctored to add footage of Kenyan preacher

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 8, 2023 at 16:05
3 min read
By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

A video circulating online purports to show a Kenyan preacher who “turned” the popular US TV show America’s Got Talent “to church”. But the clip is altered: the original footage showing a performance by a South African youth choir was replaced with clips of the preacher speaking into a microphone.

The video was published on TikTok on June 26, 2023, and has since been shared more than 19,500 times.

“Kenyan Preacher turned American got Talent to Church (sic),” reads the text in the video.

Screenshot of the altered video on TikTok, taken on August 8, 2023

The clip was also shared on Facebook and YouTube.

In the clip, a man wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with blue trim introduces himself as a pastor from Kenya and begins speaking about Jesus Christ.

He appears to be onstage, with a logo that reads “Talent” behind him. The footage cuts back and forth between the man and reaction shots from the show’s judges and the cheering crowd.

America’s Got Talent is a reality television talent show that features singers, dancers, comedians, and other performers. It debuted in 2006 and returned for an eighteenth season in May 2023.

But the video does not show a Kenyan man wowing the audience on America's Got Talent with his preaching.

Doctored video

We ran reverse image searches on the footage using the InVid WeVerify video tool and found that it is a doctored version of an episode of America’s Got Talent from May 30, 2023 (archived here).

The same audience members can be spotted in both videos.

A side-by-side comparison of two images showing the same people in the audience from the altered (L) and original (R) clips

However, in the original show, a South African musical act, the Mzansi Youth Choir, performed in honour of Jane Marczewski – who went by the stage name Nightbirde – a former America’s Got Talent performer who lost her life to cancer.

On the stage behind the youth choir is a different logo than the one behind the preacher.

Image showing the different backdrops behind the preacher and the Mzansi Youth Choir

The video has been edited, with footage of the preacher replacing the choir.

The version of the misleading clip that was shared on YouTube is labelled “#Apostle Gichinga”. We searched for the name online and came across a Facebook page under the name “Apst Simon Gichinga”.

The account shares the doctored clip, but in this case, it clearly states that it is edited.

“Credit to AGT [America’s Got Talent] Judges and funs for using your background video in my teaching…(sic).”

Screenshot showing the Facebook post with a disclaimer, taken on August 8, 2023

The other posts that share the clip do not mention it was edited.

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