made her debut as the host of on Tuesday as the hit show came back with a bang.

The 43-year-old former model catwalked her way through the crowd to announce her presence on the $1 million NBC talent show as she took over hosting duties from the departed Nick Cannon.

The night, however, belonged to schoolgirl ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer who wowed the judges and got the Golden Buzzer from Mel B and an automatic place in the live show.

Darci, 12, told the cameras that her rabbit puppet, Petunia, 'helped me find my voice' and allowed her to come out of her shell.

The Oklahoma City girl said that her act let her overcome shyness as she hoped to block out her fears 'and get a little spunky.'

Once on stage Petunia belted a huge rendition of the standard Summertime that went so well she was left in tears at the standing ovation.

'I love you and I believe you are going far, you just changed your life tonight,' said Howie Mandel after she told him she had only been performing for two years.

Simon Cowell who earlier dismissed an act by saying they were not memorable told Darci he would remember her 'in a week, in a month and in a year. When you've got it, you've got it.'

Mel told her that she had melted her heart and that words were not enough to explain it so she hit the golden buzzer and left the little girl in floods of tears as the gold confetti fell around her.

'Oh my gosh, best day of my life,' said Darci.

The show kicked off with Tyra receiving a standing ovation from the audience as she was introduced by Simon.

'I am so excited to be standing next to this sexy man,' she said with an arm around Simon.

'Are you serious? Amazing,' said Simon with his hand to his temple as the chicken was brought out.

'No. she is not,' said a skeptical Heidi.

The performance got off to a slow start with Jogku hesitant to play the keyboard and Simon scowling up at the stage in frustration.

But the chicken soon got into the swing of things as Howie stood patriotically with his hand on his heart.

'That is crazy,' said Mel as Simon beamed and the performance got a standing ovation.

'That's what I call talent,' said Tyra.

'When you feel like you have seen it all you get a chicken playing a song. I can't believe it. This is one of the craziest things I have seen here,' said Heidi.

'We are talking as if this sort of thing normally happens. This is historic. This is one of the most incredible thins I have ever seen on any of these shows,' said Simon as all four judges sent Jogku through to the next round.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing for Tyra as she asked some hopefuls how they felt about the chance of winning 'America's Next Got Talent' as she mixed up her other show America's Next Top Model.