Joining the ranks of YouTube and MusicNation, who are both holding online video contests, Yahoo! announced the "Yahoo! Talent Show," an eight-week online video contest dedicated to discovering original talent on the Internet. The contest starts today and an open call invites users to send in their submissions by uploading video clips of themselves demonstrating their best talents.

From skills in filmmaking and animation to stand-up comedy, pet comedy and performance art, Yahoo! wants to see people who have what it takes to get noticed by users and judges to become a "Web Celeb." Submissions start immediately and users can submit as many as fifty different videos that time and creativity allow before the Nov. 27 deadline.

Beginning Nov. 13 through Dec. 4, Yahoo! users can tune-in daily at http://talentshow.yahoo.com or the Yahoo! Entertainment website to watch the host, Mayleen Ramey – a television personality who's worked on a number of pop culture programs on E! and MTV – go through a selection of some of the most interesting, funny, and outrageous video submissions. During that time, users are encouraged to watch, comment and vote on the videos to help a panel of judges select five finalists.

Once the five finalists are chosen, they will compete in a series of creative video challenges – the last of which will be showcased in front of the panel of judges in New York City. Users will be able to watch these challenges on Yahoo! and will make the final vote on who wins the grand prize to star in or produce their own online show on Yahoo!, along with $50,000 in cash. The winning talent's final video will air Dec. 14 exclusively on Yahoo!.

The Yahoo! Talent Show, created in collaboration with Embassy Row, producers of Yahoo!'s hit vlog "THE 9," aims to inspire a new era of great video content on the web, provide a platform to share these videos and give users a voice by allowing them to vote for their favorites. In addition to working with Yahoo! to create original content, Embassy Row, led by producer Michael Davies, has driven an ever-growing slate of innovative and original programming, including such hits as Emmy-Award winning Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in syndication, Wife Swap (with RDF Media) on ABC, Chain Reaction on GSN, and World Series of Pop Culture on VH1.

No purchase is necessary to participate in the Contest. Contest is open to legal U.S. residents, 18 and older. See official rules at http://talentshow.yahoo.com/rules for full details.