Little Big Shots and ''America's Got Talent'' In March 2016, Lynne made an appearance on
Little Big Shots, singing "
I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" with her puppet Katie, a
cowgirl. In July 2016, she became the first child ventriloquist to perform at an evening show in the 40-year history of the
Vent Haven ConVENTion, where she fronted for ventriloquists
Kevin Johnson and Todd Oliver. Judge
Mel B praised the act and pressed her Golden Buzzer, allowing Lynne to bypass the
judge cuts and go directly to the quarterfinals. The video of the act became the most viewed in the show's history within 30 hours of its release For Lynne's first live presentation after her Golden Buzzer performance, she performed "
Who's Lovin' You" with her mouse puppet Oscar. She sang "
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" in the semifinals with puppet Edna Doorknocker. Judge
Simon Cowell predicted: "I think you're going to win." During the finale in episode 22, Lynne sang "
Anything You Can Do" with
season two winner
Terry Fator. After she was announced the winner,
NBC said that she had received the most votes out of any finale performance in the show's history. She appeared in
Jeff Dunham's video,
The Haunted House on Dunham Hill, in which she takes three of her puppets (Petunia, Oscar, and Edna)
trick-or-treating at Dunham's home, where they encounter him and some of his puppets (Walter, Achmed, Peanut, and Bubba J). In November 2017, she made a guest appearance at a Terry Fator performance at the
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa. She also appeared alongside
Pentatonix in
A Very Pentatonix Christmas Special, performing "O Easter Egg" (an
Easter-themed parody of "
O Christmas Tree") with Petunia. Lynne announced a national tour,
Darci Lynne and Friends Live. Starting with five locations and beginning in January and February 2018, it was later expanded to 52 dates taking place between January 2018 and January 2019, including nine Christmas performances in November and December called
Rocking Around the Christmas Tree with Darci Lynne and Friends. Lynne appeared as part of the charity event
One Night with the Stars at
Madison Square Garden the following month. Her December 16 homecoming show,
iHeartMedia and KJ103 Present Darci Lynne, sold out within six minutes of the tickets going on sale. As a result, a matinee show earlier the same day and then later another two shows on December 17 were added. On December 31, she performed at
Caesars Palace in Las Vegas along with
Fergie as part of a
New Year's Eve event. In January 2018, Lynne appeared on
Today with Oscar, performing "Who's Lovin' You", and in March, she appeared on the
Grand Ole Opry, as well as making a
cameo appearance on the ''
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. She returned to Little Big Shots
in April, where she performed "Shout" by the Isley Brothers with Oscar. In May 2018, Lynne appeared as a guest on Pickler & Ben. In July 2018, she participated in the 2018 Starkey Hearing Foundation gala. In August 2018, she returned to America's Got Talent
as a guest, singing "Show Off" from The Drowsy Chaperone with Petunia. In September, she appeared as a guest in an episode of Kids Baking Championship. In November 2018, she was a guest on Steve'', where she performed "
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" with Petunia, and later sang "
Jingle Bell Rock" with Petunia during NBC's
Christmas in Rockefeller Center telecast. In December 2018, Lynne returned to both the
Grand Ole Opry and
Pickler & Ben, and voiced Daisy in an episode of
Fancy Nancy. She also starred in and hosted
Darci Lynne: My Hometown Christmas. The NBC holiday
television special included both ventriloquial singing with her four main puppets (Petunia, Oscar, Edna and Katie) and non-ventriloquial singing. Duets were performed with
Lindsey Stirling,
Toby Keith,
Kristin Chenoweth, and Pentatonix and
Hunter Hayes appeared as guests. Also included was a
sketch featuring the four ''America's Got Talent'' judges: Simon Cowell,
Howie Mandel,
Heidi Klum, and Mel B.
Lonnie Chavis was the announcer for the special.
''America's Got Talent: The Champions'' and more touring In January 2019, Lynne was a guest in the
Food Network show
Winner Cake All. She returned to ''America's Got Talent
as a contestant on America's Got Talent: The Champions''. In the preliminaries, she performed a medley of "
Nutbush City Limits" and "
Proud Mary" with Oscar. Although she was voted in the top three, she did not receive enough votes to continue to the next round. She was brought back as a
wild card act and performed "
O mio babbino caro" with Petunia in the finals. During the results show, she and
Bill Barretta performed "
Can't Smile Without You", with Lynne singing as Edna and Baretta as
Rowlf the Dog from
The Muppets. She ended up as runner-up behind magician
Shin Lim, the winner of
season 13. Announced in October 2018, Lynne began a second tour in February 2019, called
Darci Lynne and Friends: Fresh Out of the Box. In March 2019, Lynne appeared as a guest for two stops of the
Barbie Be Anything Tour. In April 2019, she appeared in a
WE Day event in
Washington. In September 2019, Lynne returned to ''America's Got Talent'' as a guest performer again, along with season 12 finalist Preacher Lawson; Lynne performed "
It's a Man's Man's Man's World" with Petunia. In November 2019, she appeared as a guest on an episode of the sketch-comedy series
All That with her puppet Petunia, and also appeared in a WE Day event in
Vancouver. In February 2020, Lynne appeared as a guest on
The Kelly Clarkson Show, performing "
Something's Got a Hold on Me" with Oscar. This was followed by another appearance on the show in April. In July 2020, Lynne became a panelist on ''
Nickelodeon's Unfiltered, hosted by Jay Pharoah. She made a second appearance on All That'' as the musical guest, performing "Something's Got a Hold on Me" with Oscar. In August 2020, Lynne returned to ''America's Got Talent
as a guest performer again, where she debuted her one-eyed Australian monster puppet Ivan. In April 2021, Lynne appeared in the Side Hustle episode "Make-A-Mutt" as The Wombat. In June, she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
again. In July 2021, Lynne started a new tour, called My Lips Are Sealed (Except When They're Not)
, which would run until November 2022. In August 2021, Lynne returned to America's Got Talent
as a guest for a fourth time, and performed "Let the Good Times Roll" by Louis Jordan with Oscar. In April 2022, she appeared in the film A Cowgirl's Song'' alongside
Cheryl Ladd, Savannah Lee May, and Jason Alan Smith. It was Lynne's first time acting in a feature film. In July 2022, during
season 17 of ''America's Got Talent'', Simon Cowell shared his top 15 favorite Golden Buzzer moments in the show's history. Lynne placed second on the list. The following month, Lynne and Terry Fator made guest appearances during the show's 17th-season finale, performing "
Over the Rainbow" alongside Celia Muñoz, an object ventriloquist. In 2024, Lynne was confirmed to participate in ''
America's Got Talent: Fantasy League''. In her qualifying performance with
Heidi Klum as her mentor, she played the guitar while Petunia rocked out by moving on her own. Despite criticism from Mel B and Cowell, Darci got enough votes to move on to the semi-finals. During the semi-finals, she changed her act yet again by performing on her own which received praise from Cowell. Lynne did not qualify for the finals. ==Reception==