However, after his first audition was a rousing success greeted with a standing ovation from the judges and audience, Zerdin's appearance on America's Got Talent filtered back to the UK through social media.
What can be learned from established and experienced talents – filtered through an application process for tickets – sharing ideas with other established and experienced talents?
The net result could be a global scalable talent filter".
It's rare that you hear the term attached to recording artists today, though, much less a woman recording artist, because, if rock history is to be heeded, female performers are merely vessels through which male talent is filtered.
"She's got a little bit of a pop influence," Ms. McDonald said, "and then there's the musical-theater influence, but she's really got a talent to filter it into her own unique voice".
African developers from the Andela talent accelerator are filtering into positions at Fortune 500 companies around the world.
FameBit's limitation is that there is no way to filter talent from one long list of proposals to easily find the channel with the best focus and momentum for your brand.
In this world, rising housing costs stabilise the structure of cities, effectively filtering not by talent but by type.
The gatekeepers had served the vital function of filtering, marketing and branding talent.
Interviewing and hiring talent is more about love and luck than filtering and assessment.
