Since you use the terms "headlined" and "performed," we feel we should point out that there's a big difference between being a Las Vegas "headliner," like Terry Fator, where it's your name, or the name of your show, on the marquee, and having "performed" on the Strip, which could be accurately claimed by everyone from Celine to the keyboard player in a free Wednesday afternoon lounge act that once appeared at the Westward Ho...
As far as "America's Got Talent" winners' track records go, they seem to present a similar scenario to the one trail-blazed by Wayne Newton's E! reality show, which debuted a year earlier, back in 2005. With "The Entertainer," Mr Las Vegas himself promised a year-long headlining show "on the Strip" as part of the grand prize, but in fact even the Wayner managed to deliver only about four-months to winner Delisco, and at the distinctly off-Strip Las Vegas Hilton, at that. (Ironically, the runner-up of Wayne's talent show did go on to bag a series of Strip residencies -- see QoD 11/22/13).
It was in June 2006 that NBC unveiled the first series of "America's Got Talent," which from the outset offered one million dollars, payable as an annuity, as part of the booty, but was a little more vague about the performance aspect of the grand prize: Some early vague promises about headlining a show on the Las Vegas Strip were then downplayed until 2008, over thought of the possible complications should a minor win -- as in fact happened the first year, when 11-year-old singer Bianca Ryan walked off with the top prize, which did not include a gig in Sin City.
In 2007, ventriloquist Terry Fator triumphed and, in addition to his $1 million prize, was offered a regular fifteen-minute gig as one of the "variety" acts in Bally's veteran Jubilee! production. Our understanding is that Fator politely declined, which turned out to be a smart move: By October of the same year he'd headlined in his own sold-out show at the Las Vegas Hilton, a production which later transferred to the Strip, where Fator got to follow in the hallowed footsteps of Danny Gans, whose former theater now bears Fator's name.
In October 2008, Season 3 winner Neal E. Boyd did get to headline one gig at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where he performed in the "Live!" touring show, along with five "Talent" also-rans; a whispered Strip production with Jerry Springer failed to materialize. Season 4 winner, country music singer Kevin Skinner, was named the 2009 victor and was promised a 10-week "headliner" show at Planet Hollywood. However, this morphed into another "Talent Live!" smorgasbord of performers, emceed by Jerry Springer and was not well-received by the critics (or the general public).
Aside from the various former "Vegas Callbacks," a.k.a. "Vegas Verdicts," intermediary "wild card" taped rounds, which gave some contestants the chance to compete on TV from the platform of a Las Vegas-resort stage (before that segment relocated to New York), the norm in terms of that "Las Vegas headliner" component of the prize has comprised the show's producers fulfilling the letter of the contract with a nominal lead role in the "Live!" cast ensemble, with mini-residencies and tour stops having been hosted in Vegas by Caesars Palace and Palazzo, in addition to MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood.
There are only a couple of exceptions that spring to mind, which include Season 5 winner Michael Grimm, who scored a long-term gig in Green Valley Ranch's Ovation Lounge (since transformed into a bingo room), and later at Rock's Lounge at Red Rock, but whose scheduled three-month residency at Hard Rock's Vinyl closed unceremoniously June 18 after less than a month. Season 9 winner, magician Mat Franco, was slated to open June 25 at The LINQ on the Strip, but has now pushed back that debut to August 7, the last we heard.
When it comes to reality-TV shows creating lasting household names, to-date Terry Fator has proved to be the exception, as opposed to the rule, at least as far as cracking the Vegas Strip is concerned.
