Frankenstein123

Much has been discussed about the whole "Tyrion is a traitor and will be put on trial" leak, but I haven't really been keeping up with all of it. Assuming the leak came from someone with access to the script (they could very likely be part of a foreign translation team), I wonder if it is outside the realm of possibility that the trial does happen exactly as described, but with a different character entirely? Tyrion's name could have been added in to deliberately mislead and confuse anyone who could possibly leak the ending. The obvious one on trial would be Cersei but there are other options...

I'm waiting for them to announce "Oops, Tyra read it wrong, Michael won" on twitter any second now, because I can't believe the show actually got it this spot on for once. Absolutely AMAZING results. It has been a ROUGH, frustrating season to get through at times, but MAN was it all worth it in the end. Well almost all of it (nothing can erase Vicki's bikini from my mind).

Our long national nightmare is about to come to an end and what has been a fairly average season so far has been topped off with one of the best finals in recent memory so my thoughts will be mostly positive. 10. Michael Ketterer - I feel like the show is one step away from building a giant statue of Michael in the middle of the stage and just having acts like Zurcaroh dance in circles around it while holding hands. I liked this more than his last 2 performances, but while the emotion has always been there with Michael, I still see the voice struggling to keep up. And his "I see you when you sleep" staring he does directly at the camera doesn't help. Take the story away and I just don't think he matches up to most of the other acts that have gotten this far, but the show has done everything to get him to the top 5 and that's very likely where he will end up. Prediction: 4th place 9. Daniel Emmet. Poor poor Daniel, even Bocellifying Ed Sheeran couldn't get him more than a mild shrug and a "Oh, you are also here?" from Howie. Never before has an acts biggest weakness been that they are just TOO perfect. A bold choice of a song though. Almost as bold as that jacket. Oh god that jacket. The less said about that, the better. Prediction: Bottom 5 8. Vicki Barbolak. When in doubt, STRIP! I could have lived a perfectly fine and happy live without seeing Vicki in a bikini, but this show just keeps on giving when you least want it. I know Vicki gets a ton of hate online, but I kind of liked the riskier material she tried to go for this time because I'm 5 years old and the word "pecker" makes me giggle inside. Her character works really well on the stage, it just needs some actual...y'know..jokes behind it. I think her overall delivery HAS gotten better, but the material is stuck in the exact same old pit. Heh, pecker. Prediction: Bottom 5 7. Glennis Grace. The world's first undiscovered multiple award winning, professional singer with a history of sold out concerts did it again! She sang and notes came out and the audience went all "woo". She's been consistently good, but I don't think she ever really had that one special moment on the show like Emily West. She should also think twice about bringing her kid to that theater. He might see his mom as the greatest person alive right now, but one look at Mr "World's Greatest Dad" Ketterer and he's putting himself up for adoption. Prediction: Bottom 5 6: Duo Transcend. What they do continues to be an impressive feat, but without any surprise skates or ventriloquist dummies to throw our way, it's kind of like watching a weird family friendly spin-off of Fifty Shades of Grey that you have already seen many times before. Sorry, let me put that into Simon speak: NEEDS MORE FIRE. Prediction: Bottom 5 5. Courtney Hadwin. She ALMOST made me think she would be doing a ballad, but then everything was back to normal. Outside of her explosive audition and the initial "OH GOD DID I TAKE THE WRONG PILLS AGAIN?" reaction to the whole thing, Courtney hasn't really evolved on the show in any way. Even the "I'M GOING TO PISS MY PANTS ANY SECOND NOW" and "OW, MY BACK HURTS" dance moves are the same old things we have seen each week. She has been consistently entertaining and memorable on a show frequently dominated by the most mind-bogglingly dull singers, but ultimately there hasn't really been another wow moment since the first one. She is also so divisive that I'm now pretty much convinced that she WON'T be the winner. I wont be shocked if he does, but now I just see her being a surprise runner up and someone else ultimately taking the victory. Prediction: 2nd place. 4. Samuel J. Comroe. Well, he didn't strip so I'm grateful for that. Preacher started off great and got worse as the weeks went on, Samuel started off okay and has been getting stronger and stronger each time. THAT's the way to do it if you want to win this show. Not that he will, but he put in a good effort and out of everyone I'm predicting into the bottom 5, he has the biggest chance to shock and actually make it to the upper half. Prediction: Bottom 5. 3. Shin Lim. Shin is really at his best as a silent, mysterious, sexy sleight of hand wizard with epic music in the background and him ready to transfer into a shampoo commercial at moment's notice. Get him talking and he sounds a bit like a high school student forced to do a PowerPoint presentation on lawnmowers. He's a hard act to follow for ANY magician who wants to come on this show in the future, but as the big fan favorite this year, he's pretty much destined to end third. Prediction: 3rd place 2. Brian King Joseph. "Hey uh, so we have this guy that plays the violin. Should we make sure that's the main thing people hear and properly balance the audio levels?" "Hahaha what a story, Mark. CRANK THE BACKING TRACK UP AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, BOYS!". The King has done it again. I'm not sure if this was leaps and bounds above his last performance, but it was certainly as good. Yet, I still don't see him as a winner. The fact he got the opening death spot doesn't help and I just don't see people as hyped up about him as some other acts. So unfortunately, I fear he will end up far lower than he should. Prediction: 5th place. 1. Zurcaroh. That sequence where the boy walks up to the girl to see if she wants to play...and she just immediately bursts into tears and hides pretty much sums up my childhood. The rest of this was fantastic, just sublime. A fantastic mix of their last performances, yet somehow they made it all feel fresh with the music and the costumes. A group like this has never won the show. Am I crazy enough to predict that one will this year? Prediction: Yes, yes I am. Why the heck not, ZURCAROH WILL WIN! So that's our final then. Certainly looking forward to the results, as I'm VERY hesitant about my predictions and see a lot of different, very likely outcomes, though I'm fairly certain about the Top 5 line-up. If there is to be a shock there, MAYBE it will be Samuel and either Michael or Brian doing worse than expected. Also tuning in to see an aging rock band known for outrageous stage stunts and blood walk up on stage with a 14 year old girl while Duo Transcend spins somewhere where the camera won't catch them and a few members from Zurcaroh get to do cartwheels during the pyros. Fantastic. Though I have to admit, them actually getting Lindsey Stirling is a nice change of pace, as she has no doubt been on all our minds when we first saw BKJ. TOWARDS THE FINISH LINE THEN, BRAVELY!

Look forward to seeing my kidney on an E-bay discount listing very very soon.

HELLO! Yes. HI! *holds up his right arm* Long time viewer here. I have a few questions: First question: Was Riana in the room by any chance when the contestants were coming up with their acts? Second question: Is there anyone left working in the sound department or do they just leave that for the janitor to figure out? Third question: Did they threaten the judges with a wild card round if they didn't start doing their job? Fourth question: How do I stop making my beef stew taste like rotten fish? This might be the least exciting semi-final in the history of this show, which did mean that the judges ACTUALLY judged things for once, well apart from Heidi, but we practically didn't even get any standing ovations. Or maybe they were all just too tired to stand up, it's been a LONG season. 11: Da RepubliK. Isn't it great to have acts with personality like this in the semis, Simon? There was SO much personality on screen that I felt like I was watching a reaction channel on YouTube. Okay, I can't be TOO harsh on Simon, he was back to his good old grumpy cat self and said everything that needed to be said about these guys, but MAN was this a wasted spot. 10: Noah Guthrie. Well I didn't expect that. In the same sort of a way that I don't expect to see a juggler walk up on stage and start showing us their stamp collection. I'm afraid Noah walked down the wrong road yet again as the last thing we needed in this episode was another rendition of an overdone ballad. 9: Christina Wells. ISN'T SHOUTING FUN? I SURE THINK SO! I mean the song choice worked for me, What didn't work was the screaming at my face part, I knew I was going to get more of it from Courtney later so I REALLY wasn't ready for it the first time. She has PIPES, but they were about to burst a bit too often this time. 8: Daniel Emmet. This man's sob story has just become "AGT doesn't like me". Now I'm expecting Tyra to accidentally read her card wrong and annouce Daniel as a finalist, only for him to be sent off moments later when they realise the mistake. Then lingering shots of him looking sad while sitting in the audience throughout the final just to dig the knife in even deeper. This is what would happen if Charlie Brown was born sounding like Josh Groban. Nothing he does seems to impress the judges, despite being their dancing monkey week after week. And while I'm not ready to sign up for his fan club yet, it's hard to deny he's a much better singer than Michael Ketterer or just about any other mediocre karaoke act we've had throughout the years. Cheer up, Daniel, you may at least get your Miss Universe moment. 7: We Three. I actually liked the song they were playing this time so that's why I have them up this high. I mean the Trumpet sounded like a broken vuvuzela when one of them was playing it, BUT THEY TRIED, I'm into their style of music, but each time we see them, they seem to be getting slightly worse so I'm not sure that they COULD give us something interesting again in the final. At least not until the sound-mixers stop running around backstage with their hands up in the air yelling "HEEEELP" and actually figure out how to mike up more than one person. 6: Angel City Chorale. Tell you what, this show has brought me MUCH closer to my grandmother. I've never felt more in need of a hearing aid than during this whole performance. Much improved over last time, but still not close to what they did in their first two rounds. They just keep moving closer and closer to every other Choir we have seen on this show, while I think they are capable of much more and shining flashlights at our face doesn't really do it. 5: Vicki Barbolak. Each season Howie brings up the "comic vs comedian" thing and each season I find myself agreeing with him. We are now at exactly the same point where I say that I find her to be amusing, fun and likable on stage, but none of the jokes are REALLY all that clever or funny. I mean Simon was laughing his head off, but he was probably just daydreaming about how much better his life is the entire time. 4: Aaron Crow. FANTASTIC! We have gotten the act down from 7 minutes, to JUST 6 minutes and 15 seconds. 8 more weeks of this and he might actually be done on time. I mean I still love seeing him do his silent duckface routine on stage, but instead of REALLY wowing us this time, we got the gritty reboot of Deal or No Deal. It was essentially the same trick as last week, but with worse music. Like damn near everyone else this time, he just hasn't quite lived up to his potential. 3: Glennis Grace. A professional singer sounding professional while singing. Shocking. BUT this was just so well done and so...graceful (i hate myself too) it just worked after the messes we saw earlier. 2: Courtney Hadwin. Giving Courtney the Grace/Darci opening package treatment could not make it any more obvious who they want to win. And while I enjoy Courtney on stage, I think she's at her best when she straddles the line between "Unique genre singer" and "Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man falling down a flight of stairs while having a seizure" and last night we were WAY too much in seizureland. Still, she is FUN and interesting. I'm pretty sick of all the same old same old singers on this show, but Courtney really is genuinely fascinating and fun to watch each time. The cracks are starting to show now, with Mel B and Heidi forgetting to stand up, so MAYBE she isn't as clear of a winner as Grace and Darcy? Grace did win over the Clairvoyants by less than 1% so maybe...maybe... 1: Brian King Joseph. Brian received ALL the production this week and it was well worth it, I mean sure, you would have needed to hang from the ceiling like Spider-Man to read the words flashing behind him, but I don't expect miracles from this production team, spelling things correctly was enough of a victory. Easily my favourite performance of his and I really really hope to see him in with a shot at the final. I will offer up my kidney on E-bay if Brian, Glennis and Courtney are NOT the top 3 (don't worry, it's so damaged nobody will want it anyways). The other 2 acts? Hell if I know...it could be ANYONE besides Da RepubliK. I was pretty sure it was going to be We Three and Noah Guthrie when I did my predictions last week, but considering the underwhelming response for both, I no longer have a clue. Angel City Chorale probably pushed the right buttons to make it in. I've consistently been underestimating Vicky, but she was one of the only acts to receive praise last night and all she needs to do is get to the dunkin save and the judges will likely put her through....But really, it's a complete toss up as to who will end up in the middle 3 so I'll just go with my gut and predict this: 11. Da RepubliK 10. Noah Guthrie 9. Aaron Crow 8. Daniel Emmett 7. Christina Wells 6. We Three (lose judge's choice) 5. Vicky Barbolak (wins judge's choice) 4. Angel City Chorale (wins dunkin save) 3. Glennis Grace 2. Brian King Joseph 1. Courtney Hadwin

Finally a results show that didn't end with me sighing deeply and switching channels to watch reruns of Saved By the Bell instead. It hasn't been a great season, but at least the final line-up is starting to look pretty decent as far as variety is concerned. Of course we have to get through the singing apocalypse next week...Might as well try to predict that: 11: Da RepubliK - fodder 10: Vicki Barbolak - the best she can hope for is to get to the dunkin save and she MIGHT get there with the right material...or she can just yell "TRAILER NASTY" for 2 straight minutes and probably do as well 9. Daniel Emmett - Considering his dunkin save status, it's not looking too good for poor ol Popera Boy. But he might grab some horny votes and with the right song choice (please not nessun dorma) he has a small shot at making it to the save again (nessun dorma and my TV gets the boot) 8. Christina Wells - I think it'll either be Christina or Glennis, but not both...and I'm giving the edge to Glennis right now, but the song choice/performance could change everything 7. Aaron Crow - With an overload of singing acts, he might actually stand out. I mean he got through despite being buzzed and taking a century on stage last time so with the right act, he has a shot (not at Heidi's head again)...it just needs to be something REALLY impressive and not just 12 minutes of him standing around being all "Hello I'm, Mr Sexy Vampire Man Guy, vote please" 6. Angel City Chorale - Another Dunkin Save act that NEEDS to up their game and get back to what made them so impressive in the first time. JAZZHANDS. Another underwhelming performance and they are gone. 5. Noah Guthrie - Guy with a guitar, have to have one in the final. It's a tradition. 4. Glennis Grace - Read Christina Wells 3. We Three - Relatively safe due to their story, BUT they haven't reached their full potential yet and have to really impress the judges. If they get a timid response yet again, they might easily be out. 2. Brian King Joseph - Because yes. 1. Courtney Hadwin - Winner winner, chicken dinner!

HAH, happy to have relieved the morning blues a bit.

YESSS! THE SHOW IS ALMOST OV...I MEAN YAY SEMI-FINALS..yay 11. Makayla Phillips. How is it that the guy who was championing giant gnomes and a dude butchering tracks from the Titanic with his fake flute broom is now the only remaining voice of reason on the show? Howie pretty much said everything there needed to be said. I listened to her performance again just 10 minutes ago to get ready to write this and I've already forgotten what song she was singing so either that fall from the ladder when I was 5 years old is starting to catch up with me or it really all was that forgettable. 10: Amanda Mena. Nice song choice. And that's about all I have to say about her so I'll just mention that the Christmas light ornament the prop department had found for her was blinking VERY nicely and made me go "OOH" once or twice. Maybe even "AAH". 9: Voices of Hope Children’s Choir. I'm guessing they spent the last few weeks watching musicals other than The Greatest Showman and thus ran out of time to rehearse, because I thought they sounded pretty underwhelming this time. And the sound department playing Tic Tac Toe behind the scenes instead of actually doing their job didn't help much. 8: Front Pictures. Thist was a huge step backward for the act. They fell into the same trap every other multimedia act seems to where they let the effects take over the whole act. Last time they had found the perfect way to balance the effects with the movement and it all blended together nicely. This time it was like they themselves were just marveling at the effects they had created and hoped the audience would be bedazzled by giant CGI turtles flying around. First of all, only Hans can bedazzle. And secondly I've seen Finding Nemo too many times for that. We are way past it now. 7: Michael Ketterer.. It's just all about the story with this one, the judges can't be bothered to talk about anything other than his job. And while he's earned himself a lifetime supply of free "World's greatest dad" mugs, I'm just waiting for his singing to catch up with the rest of his story and so far...it really hasn't for me. I WANT to like him more, but I'm just not seeing anything interesting here if you look past the story. 6: Junior New System. These boots were made for dancing and that's just what they'll do...until they start to itch too bad and have to be thrown off the stage at anyone unlucky enough to be sitting in the front row. I actually found some of their moves genuinely impressive and the energy was high enough that I didn't get bored during the act. But the whole sassy, high heeled "WORK IT, HANAI" gimmick has officially taken them as far as they can go right now. 5: Us the Duo. It's time to give in and join the masses by embracing the sweet sweet melodies of latte macchiato and frappuccino establishments all over the world. I like the songs they sing, I like how they sound together and I think they come across as pretty genuine in the middle of all the Brady bunch cheesiness. I just really like cheese, okay? DON'T JUDGE ME! 4: Duo Transcend. I have been pretty dismissing of these two in the past, but I'll give them props...just when I was beginning to think they had run out of anything to show us, they quick changed into Billy & Emily. Sure, quick changing into Artyon & Paige or the dogs from Pompeyo would have been more impressive, but at least this was a start. They managed to overcome the obstacle so many of these acts run into by genuinely switching gears and showing us something new, Unfortunately for them, it's something we've seen before from other acts...but at least it proves they have range and I wouldn't mind seeing them go on to the top 10. 3: Samuel J. Comroe. Was PROPAH BELLEH LAFFIN at quite a few spots so in my eyes it was his best set so far! He continues to be likable and amusing in general too so no real complaints from me... 2: Zurcaroh. All the best (and watchable) bits of the Olympic Opening ceremonies now in a neat package. At this point they are better than half the guest performers we get on the show and each time we see them, it's a completely different motif that's well thought out, creative and ultimately just impressive to watch. Someone hand me a hat so I can take it off right now. 1: Shin Lim. There are videos online of people claiming Shin is a devil worshiping dark wizard who harnesses black magic from hell. I am inclined to agree with them since nothing else could explain that HAIR! GOOD LORD, MAN, Is it EVER not perfect? Even Aaron Crow must be swooning. The tricks were good too. It's one of his most known routines so I knew where everything was headed, but it remains one of the most impressive magic tricks I've ever seen. Zurcaroh, Michael Ketterer and Shin Lim seem like a pretty safe top 3. If there's any justice in the world, Samuel will join them from the Dunkin save. I actually think Duo Transcend have a decent shot of making it there after the massive praise from the judges and the general enthusiasm I've seen on social media. If not, hoping Us The Duo will take the spot, though it could also be Amanda or Junior New System. Overall my predictions would look something like this: 11. Front Pictures 10. Makayla Phillips 9. Voices of Hope Children’s Choir 8. Junior New System 7. Amanda Mena 6. Us The Duo (lose judge's choice) 5. Duo Transcend (win judge's choice) 4. Samuel J. Comroe (Dunkin save) 3. Michael Ketterer 2. Zurcaroh 1. Shin Lim I've already accepted that Michael is going through, but if he's at least joined by Shin, Samuel, Zurcaroh and either of the Duo's, then I can count the results as a success overall.

12: Joseph O’Brien. I love how what was probably just a throwaway line during the audition interviews ("I'm single") has now turned into a fully produced sketch involving Joseph going from door to door to various women holding a lousy bouquet and getting rejected. I mean...fuck. If that doesn't sum up everything wrong with the show right there, I'm not sure what does. I, personally, spent the entire act wondering what dollar store Halloween decoration they used to cover up his piano, because the song was dull as can be. He seems like a nice guy, but if there's any integrity left on the show, he should absolutely be the singer booted out at this stage. On the plus side, he has a little bit extra to take with him to whatever show he goes on next, as "Tyra Banks made me speak out the name of my secret crush on national television" is a sob story even I can get behind. 11: Rob Lake. Although I'm quite sick of them at this point, there IS a way to make these big stage illusions work. This was not it. Vegas is full of cool, interesting magicians with a ton of personality doing these old tricks with a fresh new twist. Unfortunately Rob Lake is a magician of the gorgonzola variety. The sign mess-up didn't help, but the whole act before that was just underwhelming and...lame as you said. At least his final trick worked well enough, but he's such a charisma vacuum that I completely forgot about it seconds later when I felt my soul being sucked out through my skull by his smile. 10: Michael Ketterer. I get it, the tears and the emotions and the kids and the story and everything. Guy seems like a SUPER great dude and the world needs more people like him, but if ever there was an act solely relying on a sob story, this is kind of it...I can't exactly categorize him as a typical "bland" singer on the show, he certainly knows how to convey emotion and he clearly sings with passion, but his actual voice is just...missing something. Besides the emotions, I found the whole performance underwhelming and think this really wasn't the right song for his limited range. Hopefully his next pick will be better because he IS going through. 9: Daniel Emmet. I'm pretty sure Simon just brought him back because he was the only person who would accept the offer to have a wall of FIRE behind him. Great vocals, overplayed song, but done differently enough that it wasn't boring. The show has fallen out of love with opera recently so I don't really know how well people will respond to this. Thankfully he has the support of youngsters all over America, as Tyra said, with Aerosmith, because y'know...nothing gets the teens going these days more than a wrinkly old Steven Tyler coughing up his remaining lung on stage. 8: The Future Kingz. I found these guys to be much more interesting than whatever #StockDanceAct9887 was last week, but I also still find it really hard to personally get excited over groups like this so I'll just say that names ending with Z are cool. 7: Christina Wells. As far as singers go on this show, I thought she pretty much brought the roof down on the building. Not literally, we aren't that lucky. Woman can SING, but the producer's can't use the volume button competently. Still, it was powerful. 6: Us the Duo. The whole "I HAVE A TINY HUMAN BEING INSIDE OF ME" angle was viewer manipulation at its finest, but I like these two. I've been on board with them from the beginning and I still am. Maybe I'm just crazy, it's really nothing all too different from something you'd hear at a local coffee shop, but DAMN IT I like coffee. And I liked the song, their chemistry and voices blending together. Sue me, but the act works in my eyes. 5: UDI Dance. I must have been watching something different than everyone else, because throughout the performance I was thinking "oh this is so through" only to to then hear the judge's comments and see the general lack of enthusiasm online (I saw they were the least retweeted act this entire season). It was sloppy, sure, at times the act comes across like a kid trying to recreate The Avengers in their room using cardboard boxes and some crayons, but that comes with the territory. Acts like these still haven't figured out how to make it all look polished and seamless, but I thought this was creative and fun. They DID step it up, by adding costumes and elements we have never seen from an act like this before and yet I'm pretty sure they are toast this week. Shame. 4: Aaron Crow. This guy could charm Dracula out of his own castle. The act took longer than the entire Lord Of The Rings Extended Trilogy combined, but I was enthralled throughout even though it was a fairly simple and known trick. I had pretty much written this guy off before the semi, because I knew how much the viewers dislike danger acts, so I was happy to see him do some straight up magic...unfortunately it didn't really all go down as great as I hoped and Mel B's buzzer pretty much sealed his fate shut. I'm also not sure it ended like it was supposed to. Howie's pick amounted to nothing, as Aaron already knew where the knife was, but considering he had spent what seemed like an hour fondling these boxes on stage himself, it seemed odd for that to be the big finish. I'm not sure if it just went wrong here or was supposed to end like this, but something didn't feel quite right. It kills me inside to say that he's probably a goner, as he's an interesting and talented enough act to deserve a spot in the actual FINAL, but this wasn't the way to win the rest of the audience over. 3: Brian King Joseph. This wasn't his best performance. Still impressive as hell, but I got too distracted by the Troy James gang playing charades behind him. It wasn't needed, but thankfully Brian is good enough to still stand out. 2: Hans. On a show that mostly serves to disappoint or piss me off these days, Hans managed to make me forget all that as I did a little jig in my room and had the biggest smile possible on my face. Bless you, Hans. We are not worthy! 1: Zurcaroh. This really did feel short, but I checked the time on YouTube and it was basically the same as a few other singers last night so I guess that just meant I WANTED MORE. And boy do I. This is just a professional, well thought out group that rivals Diavolo, but it was actually easier to keep track of people and tricks because it was all so well put together. Any act that can tell a story through dance that even Mel B can understand, must be doing something right! Decent enough night as usual, made even better by the complete lack of any songs from The Greatest Showman! Before the show started, I thought this would be the hardest one to predict yet (and I haven't been doing a good job so far), but as the show progressed things became pretty obvious... Zurcaroh, Brian King Joseph, Us The Duo, Christina Wells, Daniel Emmett and Michael Ketterer all seem like certain qualifiers. Of course, one has to end up in the dunkin save and this is where things get difficult, because it could be ANY of them. I'll just go out on a limb and predict Us The Duo won't have charmed people quite as much as they did me, but will make it through with ease thanks to the save anyways. Last spot is harder to predict. Aaron is likely out thanks to the buzzer alone (when was the last time an act that got buzzed came anywhere close to going through?). UDI seemed to underwhelm people and combined with the judge's dismissing comments, I'm afraid they are goners too. Joseph should be gone no matter what as even if he gets to the middle 3, I doubt the judges would pick him. Rob Lake will likely be in the save simply because magic and hotness and because I'm feeling adventurous I'll say that the third one in the save will be HANS!!!!! (but it will actually be The Future Kingz). So overall these are my predictions for tonight: 12. Aaron Crow 11. UDI 10. Joseph O’Brien 9. Hans 8. Rob Lake (loses judge's pick) 7. The Future Kingz (judge's pick) 6. Us The Duo (dunkin save) 5. Christina Wells 4. Daniel Emmet 3. Brian King Joseph 2. Zurcaroh´ 1. Michael Ketterer

So is this just an annual thing now? Each year before the second quarterfinal, the interns take over tech duty? At least this meant the judges had to step up and actually do some, y'know, JUDGING for once. 12: Quin and Misha. I guess "She's dancing like she's never danced before" stands for "Being completely motionless while some guy uses you like a scarf". Yeah, I was bored out of my mind during this too, there was a brief moment in the middle where the live feed cut out the music...THAT added a TINY bit of excitement, but I doubt that was intentional. 11: Yumbo Dump. I just watched two fat naked dudes run around pretending to have fake dolphin sex on stage. We truly live in the golden age of Television. 10: Voices of Hope Children’s Choir. But...I asked nicely..."Please no more Greatest Showman songs". This looked like one of those stripy coloured "Technical Difficulties" test screens that you get on your TV, which fit the show perfectly last night. The whole thing was pleasant and nice enough, but not exactly impactful in any way. Props to the camera man for finding the kids that weren't doing anything and broadcasting them on live TV. 9: Makayla Phillips. Perfectly servicably forgettable...Actually, I'm pretty sure that sequence of words there is as broken as the show was last night. It's hard to deny that she has a good voice and can sing, but I feel that's a given on this show at this point and I heard nothing here I haven't heard before. There is something Ariana Grande-ish about her that's at least a tiny bit interesting, but she clearly hasn't found her own style yet... 8: Da RepubliK. This was a step-up and they are a good dance group overall, I still didn't really see anything THAT special or unique that would make them stick in my mind in the end. I'm glad we have moved past the "play 5 seconds of an annoying tune, follow up with 5 seconds of an even more annoying tune" style of dance crews, but these guys were still lacking something to really make them stand out for me. Y 7: Duo Transcend. I think what they do is really impressive and if there's any justice in the world, they should be rewarded for all the hard work by getting through. But I can also admit when an act isn't for me and this is just one of those cases...I've seen them 3 times now and they simply fail to engage me and I'm in the clear minority right now so it's probably my own fault rather than theirs that I was wondering about what weird Sacred Riana'd version of Toxic was playing behind them rather than enjoying the act itself 6: Noah Guthrie. I woke up this morning with a bad cold and a slight fever. That might be the reason why I'm about to do this next: defend a singing act on this show. I LIKED IT! I dunno, I enjoyed the song well enough, thought his voice suited it perfectly and overall the whole thing was enjoyable to listen to. Heck, I'd rather listen to this on a loop for the next 24 hours than hear another song from The Great Showman. 5: Glennis Grace. Speaking of that, the next episode of "Who wants to be the next Greatest Showman" saw Glennis get fashion advice from a woman who consitently looks like she's been dressed by a team of lemurs. Yeah, she sang it well and all, but failed to really elevate the song or reach any new heights and I feel she's capable of doing it with a less overused song. 4: The Savitsky Cats. SIMON.exe has stopped working. And I like cats. Cats have absolutely zero motivation to do anything besides sleep and quietly hate you, so while there WERE mistakes in the act, the fact they still managed to get back on track in the end was impressive enough. I also feel like we've seen more unique tricks from these cats than we ever did from the Pompeyo dogs. Also, whoever put together that intro package about the cats needs a raise. Netflix, get on top of that. 3: Samuel J. Comroe. The screen was distracting, but I think he did a great job overall. I also liked his little opening jab regarding Yumbo Dump, just makes acts like these feel so much more natural when they can comment on the actual show they are on and not JUST use stock material from their library. He's not quite Preacher level yet, but he's getting better with his delivery each time... 2: The Sacred Riana. I'm not even sure if I should consider this a magic act at this point, Heidi was spot on when she said the tricks themselves aren't that impressive. BUT as a bit of performance art with some magic thrown into it? IT'S GREAT! She's consistently interesting and fun to watch, even when the act turns into a complete clusterfuck in the end. Now on to what EVERYONE has been going crazy about...The cut to a commercial was clearly intentional and actually a pretty neat idea on paper that went along with the story she was telling on stage. You ramp up the tension, do a big climactic trick where you climbs up a wall and finish with a scream, only to fade to black and leave the audience in suspense/wondering if you got tickled to death by your clone army (OOOOH SPOOKY). The execution just didn't entirely work, a lot of it thanks to the entire episode beforehand being a giant mess, but just a quick glance at the OVERWHELING amount of people screaming "JUSTICE FOR RIANA, WE WANT TO SEE THE ENDING, SHAME ON YOU AGT" on youtube will let you know that a LOT of people didn't get what she was trying to do and just ended up confused. I think the timing of the actual cut to commercials was just badly done, maybe a fake glitch effect or a quick fade to black would have made the thing better, I'm not sure. I just know it didn't work the way she intended, BUT considering the amount of people who are now convinced she was "robbed" by AGT, it might all end up helping her in the end. 1: Front Pictures. I was ready for them to just do another random visualiser graphics show, but no, this was a clevel and engaging little bit with an actual story that took full advantage of their technology. It kind of reminded me of a level from Luigi's Mansion or something else from Nintendo. Artistic, clever and fun, everything I wanted it to be. Yet I'm worried about their future, because I think a lot of people will just see this as a big exoensive tech show and nothing else. Their lack of a backstory doesn't help... Honestly, the scariest part of this episode wasn't Riana or any of the technical issues, but the amount of Greatest Showman tunes we had to endure. A mess of a show overall, with thankfully enough decent acts to keep the thing floating. PREDICTION TIME: Yumbo Dump can safely be dumped outside, same with Quin and Misha. Like you said, Da RepubliK too. Unfortunately, I have to bite the bullet and say that the last act in the bottom 4 will be Front Pictures. Just considering the show's history with projection acts and the lack of a clear story/personalities to hang on to, I have a hard time seeing the usual AGT audience voting for this. I'm SO hoping to be wrong, but I'm prepared for the worst. On the other end of the table, Glennis should be safe, as should Samuel due to his adorableness alone. I also think Riana will easily make it through, being the most watched and talked about act last night, coupled with a LOT of people thinking she genuinely got screwed over. The rest of them could end up anywhere, it's damn near impossible to predict so I'll just follow my (highly wrong) gut as usual and say the results will be roughly like this: 12. Yumbo Dump 11. Quin and Misha 10. Da RepubliK 9. Front Pictures 8. Noah Guthrie (lose judge's choice) 7. Duo Transcend (win judge's choice) 6. Voices of Hope Children’s Choir (win dunkin save) 5. The Savitsky Cats 4. Makayla Phillips 3. Samuel Comroe 2. Sacred Riana 1. Glennis Grace

12: The PAC Dance Team. In a world of pure abomination, a bunch of Strawberry Shortcakes attack a street pimp. Considering two of the judges were bored out of their mind during this and we all knew exactly what they would do round after round after round (Spoilers: MORE OF THIS) then I still have no clue why they were let through in the first place. All I know is, it's time to PAC their bags and go home very soon. 11: Amanda Mena. She IS a good singer, but in an episode with 2 other teenage girls doing something a whole hell of a lot more interesting, there was very little to remember about poor Amanda. I guess the Janet Jackson cosplay was nice... 10: Lord Nil. This didn't really work for me. The idea was good enough, but the execution didn't leave me on the edge of my seat as it should have. The whole "OH NO A SCARY ANIMAL" thing is getting old now when there's probably a bearded dude sitting backstage waiting to grab these snakes later and carry them around his neck. And pro tip: if you want your act to have excitement, DON'T get Tyra to provide the commentary, because she will do it with about as much enthusiasm as a 9 o'clock weatherman in Pensilvania. The hair pin thing was a nice touch and overall I don't think it was a bad act, I've just seen it done better... 9: Junior New System. It's easy to notice just how good these guys are when you compare them to PAC just a little bit earlier. BUT I'm still not seeing that special something here that would leap them over OTHER dance acts. The high heels are a decent enough gimmick, but we've seen it now. We know it's coming and at this point all it does is slow their routine down and send Mel B bouncing up and down her chair. 8: We Three. Simon speaking a bit of sense for once (don't worry, things got back to normal shortly). I still like the way they sound and I didn't find the song bad or anything, but they weren't connecting with the audience. Sticking the three of them on separate podiums continents apart on stage and flashing some shiny lights behind them is classic AGT overproduction. They need to simpify things and look like an actual unit again, but I think they will get the chance to do so. 7: Angel City Chorale. I genuinely had a moment there where I thought "Hang on..didnt they do this song already?" but no, no that was the OTHER choir. And that's the problem , they went with something safe and predictable and it just wasn't interesting. It doesn't help that AGT has no clue how to record decent sound from choirs. At this point, just hurdling microphones randomly around the stage would get a better result than whatever the hell it is they are doing. 6: Vicki Barbolak. The whole "trailer park" personality thing would probably work better if the show allowed slightly more...edgy material, BUT I still like her. She's not the funniest comedian to be on the stage and they weren't the best jokes, but there is still something about her that makes it all enjoyable to listen to... 5: Human Fountains. A performance worthy of a spit-take or two. At the end of the day, it's just dudes spewing water into eachother's mouths and I enjoy watching it. Maybe that reveals more about me than the actual act, but hey, I'm reviewing AGT performances on an online forum, I never said I was sane. 4: Flau’jae. I also found myself agreeing with Mel B (oh no, SOMEONE CALL THE DOCTOR I MIGHT BE ILL) this time. She has a ton of charisma and the actual rapping is great, but towards the end the performance got very messy and essentially turned into a weird variation of shouting "PUT YOUR HANDS UP" straight out of a bad EDM festival and heavy breathlessness on her part. It's the kind of thing I wanted to see her do, but maaaaaybe let Courtney handle the deranged dancing for now and focus on the rapping. 3: Mochi. For the first part of the act, I admit to being far more impressed by the background visuals than the diabolo itself, which is probably the number one problem with this act...BUT the fireworks one at the end was great and it just works as an act so I definitely hope he stays in a little while longer. 2: Courtney Hadwin. Hadwin? More like Haswon. I'm pretty sure I just witnessed Exorcist 6 (yes, there are that many of these and yes most of them should be burned) on stage. Bloody hell...I admit to often wandering off in my mind when watching the show live, I made up the whole entire week's grocery list in my head during Amanda's performance, BUT Courtney had my FULL attention. There's no way to sleep through that, she just grabs you. And although she is a combination of other singers and only seems to sing covers, she does put her own spin on them all. I could do without the "shy girl" act, but I continue to think she'd make for a great winner. 1: Shin Lim. I loved everything about this. There's a wonderful atmosphere of mystery surrounding his performances and his skills are just something else. If he continues winking at the camera, he can probably win the whole thing because girls will just be spellbound. He also gave Simon a reason to snap out of his trance and go back to spouting nonsense. Asking Shin to "move away from cards" is like asking Flau’jae to move away from rapping...or Courtney to move away from cocaine. It was a decent enough show, but I also feel like most acts played it pretty safe and didn't really improve from what we already knew they could do...Still, nothing outright bad here. But I guess now I'll try to guess what will happen... Lord Nil can safely be sent home and Mel B can rest easy for a little while. Pac dance team and Human Fountains are also out. Meanwhile, Courtney and Shin are 100% safe and through. It's that middle pack now that's hard to guess as anything could happen. I would have put Flau’jae as a safe one to go through, but the reactions online (youtube, twitter) have been so mixed that I'm not 100% sure any more. On the other hand, people seemed to really enjoy Junior New System so I can't guess them 100% out either. Mochi and Vicki are still complete wildcards, We Three could easily end up as a save due to Simon's comments and the choir didn't come across amazing on TV either. I'll just have to go with my gut here and say this will be tonight's result: 12. Pac Dance Team 11. Lord Nil 10. Human Fountains 9. Vicki Barbola 8. Amanda Mena (narrowly misses out) 7. Junior New System (Judge's Save) 6. Mochi (Dunkin Save) 5. We Three 4. Angel City Chorale 3. Flau’jae 2. Shin Lim 1. Courtney Hadwin

That's a weird thing to get caught up on, things can ALWAYS go wrong. A singer could lose his/her voice, the mic could short circuit, a magicians props could fall apart, a wire could come loose during a circus act etc etc. Performances are cancelled and things go wrong all the time, even for professionals. Light balance have shown us nothing but quality and precision and nothing else has led us to believe their act is unreliable. As far as we know the show was to blame for the technical difficulties.

After countless auditions, poor decisions and many many hair extensions we have finally arrived at this sad point in time we end up at each year. Yes, Howie Mandel is about to be unemployed for 8 months starting tomorrow. But let's not dwell on the sad parts, it's time to see how our acts did: 10. Evie Clair - I'll admit, her intro was handled with a lot more subtlety than I would have guessed, but that of course went out the window once it was time for the judges to speak up. Still, it was pretty nice until then, wasn't it? If we are to have a shocker in tonights results show, I think Evie is the one to do it. PREDICTION: Bottom 5, but ready for a shocking 5th place result. 9. Kechi - Maybe the reason Preacher had a seizure on stage earlier was due to him suddenly remembering Kechi's dress rehearsal? SPARKLES, SPARKLES EVERYWHERE. Also someone in the sound booth pressed the "Danell and Greater Works" button by accident, pretty much drowning out any hope of actually hearing Kechi. I did enjoy the song this time around though and while Kechi isn't the greatest singer we have on the show I still think she's earned her place here. PREDICTION: Bottom 5 8. Chase Goehring - Chase was Chase. I kept waiting for his friend to jump out and start tapping that box again, but no suck luck. If this whole singing thing doesn't work out for him, he could make a living reading out all those warning labels in various medication ads. PREDICTION: Bottom 5 7. Angelica Hale - I was half expecting Celine to be on stage wearing a badly made "ANGELICA HALE" nametag. BUT HEY! A SONG I LIKE! Now slowed down to crawling halt. YAY! I thought she did just fine, as usual. Her fanbase is huge enough that she's rivaling Darci in youtube views, but hopefully that wont be true in the voting. Not that I would mind her being high up, I'm just not ready for a shocker where she actually ends up winning. PREDICTION: 4th 6. Sara and Hero - A bit sloppy here and there, but I think it's still impressive just how well she's trained these dogs and yet managed to make the whole routine feel like it's just playtime for them. It was missing a few more BIG tricks like the one Hero did in the end, but they did good. I still think there's a SLIGHT chance they might make it to the top 5, but as of right now I see Evie being a likelier dark horse. PREDICTION: Bottom 5 5. Preacher Lawson - Him saying that some people would be crying with laughter, while others would be wondering when it all ends wasn't a joke, the reaction to this was VERY mixed. I actually found myself laughing out loud a few times, which I haven't done much before with him so I guess I'm one of the insane ones. I think going for a cohesive story as his last routine was a good idea, but the jokes STILL didn't live up to his delivery and by the end I was wondering if the rewind button on my remote had jammed. Comedy is as subjective as it gets, but based on the reaction I've seen online I don't think Preacher will part of the cursed "runner up comedians" club after all. PREDICTION: 5th 4. Diavolo - I kinda wish instead of music we just got Jacques narrating the whole act, he would have made it seem like the most exciting thing happening on the planet. Not that I'm trying to say this WASNT exciting, they were quality as always, but the lack of time they had to prepare may have forced them to bring back their audition prop, rather than show us something completely new. They will likely be underappreciated by the voters yet again, but I'm VERY glad they made it this far as in some way they epitomise what this show is all about in the best of times. PREDICTION: Bottom 5 3. Mandy Harvey - I found this song to be slightly weaker than her last 2, which means I'm agreeing with Mel B. Yes, I'm horrified by that thought as well. I've praised her enough as it is at this point, all I have left to say is that I wish her good luck in whatever she does in the future and hopefully the slightly lukewarm comments wont hurt her in the results tonight. PREDICTION: 2nd 2. Darci Lynne - I thought she would do her yodeling routine, but she probably chose to do this instead to show off more technical mastery as controlling 2 dolls and switching between 2 different voices is no easy task. The problem is neither of her voices were quite distinctive enough to impress us as much as they should have. I still enjoyed every last moment of her act, the girl is funny, charming and incredibly talented, similarly to most other acts her best performance was just seen in the semis. PREDICTION: WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! 1. Light Balance -Sorry, Darci, today they had you beat. I have never done acid, but I imagine it would feel a bit like looking at these guys. They gave it their ALL this time around and it was a great throwback to all the previous rounds that actually worked. I think they pretty much secured their spot in the top 5, where exactly though? Not sure yet. But I want to rent them to act as my halloween decorations for the entirety of October, SO GUYS IF YOU NEED WORK AFTER THIS...YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME. PREDICTION: 3rd I'd say this was a very "safe" final, with most acts incorporating their audition into the routine as a neat throwback. Light Balance were probably the only ones to really step it up, everyone else remained the exact level they were before, which resulted in a BIIIT of a disappointing show if one was expecting to be blown away, but I was entertained. The initial prediction of a Darci, Angelica, Mandy, Preacher and Light Balance still seems like a safe bet with Evie and Sara as the possible dark horses to steal a spot. In what order these acts will end up in is anyone's guess, Angelica seems like the obvious runner up choice thanks to her fanbase, but its TOO obvious. I really have a feeling Evie will make it all the way to 5th place, but I can't really think of who to get rid of and a top 5 with 4 female acts sounds impossible. I'll just stop setting my brain on fire and sum up the prediction I made above in a nice list format: 10. Diavolo 9. Kechi 8. Chase Goehring 7. Sara and Hero 6. Evie Clair 5. Preacher Lawson 4. Angelica Hale 3. Light Balance 2. Mandy Harvey 1. Darci Lynne I hope you all are as excited to see the producers desperately try to figure out how to fit 15 seconds of Diavolo between 25 stand-by singers as I am tonight.

I was talking about the results, I "feared" that they would steal a spot from someone more worthy simply due to their spoiler appeal as a military group. We've seen similarly mediocre singing acts on this show make it very far simply due to their backstories.

The show probably SHOULD be about that, but it's never outright claimed it's for amateurs only. The other problem is that if we start disregarding acts with previous experience/success we are pretty much only left with mirror image. Billy and Emily already have a show in las Vegas as part of a larger group, Diavolo has been around for 25 years and have toured all around the world and worked with Cirqu Du Soleil, Bello Nock was the face of Ringling Bros circus and is similarly famous around the world, Colin Cloud is a member of The Illusionists and tours the world, Sara & Hero have appeared on numerous TV shows and have won a TON of awards, the guy behind The Singing Trump has been an impressionist and an actor well over a decade now and has his own show in Las Vegas, Eric Jones has been part of some of the biggest magic tours in the country and has deals with big companies like Coca-Cola, Oscar Hernandez is a trained coreographer who has worked with acts like Flo Rida, Darci has appeared in various TV shows before and does this professionally, Evie Clair has songs out on spotify and amazon and has even recorded songs for movies, Celine was VERY well known in her home country before AGT, same with Damian, even Angelica has performed in Las Vegas already. You can find similar stuff for all the rest of the acts, at this point it's a way for these acts to gain popularity, because as experienced and successful as they already are most of them still aren't exactly household names.

11. Pompeyo Family Dogs - This was less of an act and more of a comedy sketch involving a family trying to catch escaped zoo animals. The presentation was good as always, but somehow Sara has managed to show us much more variety and many more tricks with just 2 dogs than these guys have with 10 times more. I still kinda find them fun, but this was just chaos, chaos we have already seen before. 10. In The Stairwell - Still kinda fun, but I kept thinking how much better the whole thing would be if they added The Singing Trump to the frontline. 9. Celine Tam - Between the poor location in the running order, the lackluster comments and the lack of a standing ovation (even Yoli got one) Celine seems like one of the few singers the show actually wants to get rid of. I can't get over the feeling she's been groomed to be the perfect beauty pageant contestant, one who must smile at ALL times and say thank you even if she has no clue what the judges just said. That intro package involving his fathers relaxing in a swimming pool due to his daughters success might have been the most honest thing we have seen in one of those in a WHILE. 8. Christian Guardino - Still like his voice, still find him boring. 7. Kechi - This was probably my favourite song choice of hers and although it wasn't a perfect performance, I feel she's one of the very few contestants who has gotten better on stage each time. 6. Angelica Hale - Round 2 of the diva-sing-off goes to Angelica once more. She's a natural on stage and I can only imagine what she might sound like once she grows up. She just needs to stay away from ANYTHING Celine's dad wants to give her. 5. Merrick Hanna - As charming as ever, although the moves are starting to blend into one now and somewhere along the line Merricks storylines have gotten a bit lost in the spectacle. I still very much enjoy what he does, but he needs to focus on the "story" part of his act a bit more to continue to stand out. 4. Mandy Harvey - I still have her last song stuck in my head, which is odd considering how simple it really was. Jazz is very near and dear to my heart so I'm glad she went in that direction this time and my god is she a good performer. In fact I've grown to like her so much I actually checked out her album on spotify, which is probably the highest praise I can give since that RARELY happens with other singers on this show. 3. Colin Cloud - Colin finally stopped letting Mel B do his hair and his performance got much less confusing as a result. This was a rather simple tricks (a variation of it we saw performed by Tom "I wish I was brought back like Steven Brundage" London) presented in a very clever and humorous way that took full advantage of the kind of production this show allows. Everything was spot on this time and it was nice to see Colin back in full form after the meandering performance he gave last time. 2. Diavolo - I could easily see these guys being guests on a results show rather than just contestants. I do sometimes get bored with acrobatic acts as it's like trying to keep track of a rotating ant farm, but these guys make it work perfectly, with creativity and fluidity each week. 1. Light Balance -I like how they come up with a new theme and costumes each time we see them, it keeps things fresh and they know exactly how to balance the dancing with the effects, it's just a TON of fun to watch. SIGN ME UP FOR THOSE TICKETS. This was one of the strongest shows the entire season. I thought seeing these performances might make predicting the results easier, but no...they really don't, apart from the Pompeyo Family every act gave it their all and did the best they could. If I have to start naming names, then Pompeyo is easily the first we can eliminate. I still fear In The Stairwell a little bit due to their "AMERICA!!!!" patriotism appeal, but realistically I can't see them beating enough acts to make it to the top 6. Mandy should make it to the top 3 along with Angelica and Colin stepped it up enough to where I can see him making it through as well, even if he's not in the top 3. Anything could happen with the rest of the acts, but my gut tells me Diavolo is going to be sacrificed this time around. Light Balance should at least make the dunkin save and claw their way out of there. That leaves Merrick, Kechi and Celine. Celine has the most views and likes on social media out of anyone this semi, but it's hard to tell if those are just coming from people from her home country that can't vote anyways. I'll just have to trust my gut I suppose... 11. Pompeyo Family Dogs 10. Christian Guardino 9. Diavolo 8. In The Stairwell 7. Kechi 6. Merrick Hanna (loses judges choice) 5. Light Balance (win judges choice) 4. Celine Tam (wins dunkin save) 3. Colin Cloud 2. Mandy Harvey 1. Angelica Hale I haven't got a bloody clue though, I'm not confident about ANY of this and can think of at least 15 different ways this could end with and they all seem plausible. It's going to be interesting...

I got 5 out of 5, just not in the order I thought. Not bad. I'm actually fairly pleased with the TOP 3 and all 3 are acts I'm looking forward to seeing again. I was quite surprised to see Chase end up where he did, my brain was always telling me he would sail through due to his "pretty-boy" status, but I guess America really might be getting sick of hearing about his fantasy relationships. It's a damn shame to lose Mike, Simon mentioned that "age shouldn't matter" with talent, but it certainly seems to matter with voters. Maybe he just should have milked his sob story more *sigh* It's interesting to think that an act that barely made it through the audition stage has now sailed through each round straight to the finals. Could anyone have guessed early on that Sara & Hero would make it this far? One could claim that America loves dogs and will vote for them no matter what, but Pompeyo didn't even manage to get into the Dunkin Save and this is the first time in over 5 years that an animal act is back in the finals so people are clearly seeing something special in Sara and her love of dogs. I know in my heart I SHOULD be angry about her making it over Billy & Emily and even Mike, but I enjoy seeing this act too much to do that. Besides, I find her underdog (pun intended) story of getting here far more endearing than all the sob stories they try to shove down our throats. Speaking of sob stories, I could rant about Evie making it through, but I'll save myself the time and energy. I think it's just time for me to make peace with the fact she's here. She got through and she's here to stay, but she wont win and if this show helps a young girl get through the darkest period of her life then I guess that's not the worst thing that's ever happened? I'm being careful not to blame Evie herself here, no I fully put all the blame on the show and the producers for milking her story like this and the voters for falling for it. Oh and we also have a wild card. Did I mention already that Simon likes dogs? Because he REALLY likes dogs. I half imagine the producers going "OH SH--, IS IT TOO LATE TO CHANGE THE FOOTAGE?" when Sara actually went through as Pompeyo really have no shot of doing as well as her (which feels weird to say considering how it seemed the other way around for such a long time). A more worthy wild card act would still have had an incredibly tough time going through next week and I guess I'm okay with it just being a fun cannon fodder act like the Pompeyo family instead of me getting my hopes up again for someone like Puddles. And that finally brings us to next week. Oh boy. Let's just get the personal ranking over with: 11: In the Stairwell 10: Celine Tam 9: Pompeyo Family Dogs 8: Kechi 7: Christian Guardino 6: Angelica Hale 5: Colin Cloud 4: Diavolo 3: Merrick Hanna 2: Mandy Harvey 1: Light Balance Just looking at that list is giving me a minor panic attack. I'm not sure who they are trying to kill off here, but having a bunch of fan favourites and 5 Golden Buzzer acts in semi 2 while dumping all 3 of the Judges Choice winners into semi 1 seems like insanity. This is a slaughterhouse! Pompeyo and In The Stairwell are the only 2 I would confidently consider out. America loves dogs and the military, but the competition is simply too tough this time around. It's impossible to get all 4 of Colin, Diavolo, Light Balance and Merrick to the finals, at best we'll probably only see 2 of them making it through. Diavolo and Light Balance seem like the obvious stand-outs, but we have seen what's happened to acts like Siro-A in the past. America simply responds better to individuals than groups, no matter how impressive they are so it seems likely we are losing at least 1 of them. Merrick has been a dark horse from the very beginning and has gathered a decent fanbase, but he would have had a MUCH easier time going through this week. Colin seems like the easiest one to eliminate due to his dunkin save status, but if Eric Jones managed to get to the top 6 despite only being a judges pick then Colin has all the chance in the world to pull off a comeback. And then we have the singers...Mandy Harvey is probably the safest choice out of ANYONE in this semi. At least one of Celine or Angelica is guaranteed of going through, but will both? You'd think with them finally put up against eachother that America would finally come to a decision and pick the better one, but I can just as easily see both of them making it due to their insanely big fanbase. And affter seeing what Evie did with just a sob story this week, what will the voters do when faced with Kechi, who is a much better singer and a performer? Even Christian can't be considered done for if he manages to step it up. So that's 4 deserving and likely-to-go-through variety acts battling it out with 4 fan-favourite and likely-to-go-through singers with Christian watching nervously in the middle on a dark horse. All for just 5 spots! I haven't got a CLUE, this will be the most interesting and potentially frustrating show so far.

HI HI IT'S TY TY *slaps himself* Sorry, didn't want to scare you all like that, just here to rank some stuff: 11. Yoli Mayor - There are hints of greatness in Yoli, but she hasn't really found a way to command the stage yet. Frankly I have forgotten her performance after just writing that sentence and I don't really feel like watching it again so let's just move on. 10. Evie Clair - This was pleasant enough, but she fails to really stand out in any meaningful way. Recent reports are saying her dad might only have hours left instead of days so it's hard not to feel for her situation and if this show has helped her cope and take her mind off the misery then at least some good has come from it, but setting all of that aside and judging her objectively? She just fails to leave much of an impression in the competition. 9. Johnny Manuel - I didn't mind the song, it was certainly a brave move but it also drowned him out in the end. Johnny has one of the best voices in the competition, maybe even THE best but unlike Brian Justin Crum last season Johnny hasn't really managed to figure out how to put it to good use yet and I feel like everything after his audition has just been an excuse for the judges to go "yeah, you really should just sing "I Have Nothing" again". At some point we have to stop judging an act based on their potential and start judging the performance on the night and that time has come for Johnny. 8. Chase Goehring - I don't really have anything against him, he just does his own thing and does it well. It's just not really MY thing and I'm beginning to feel like I've heard this exact same song from him 4 times now, but hey...his stoned out friend got to show off his talent of beating a box on stage without going through a single previous round so that was cool. 7. DaNell Daymon & Greater Works - A step down for me too, picking a slow "ballady" (not a word, but I'm using it anyways because butchering the english language is my favourite past-time) song didn't help them stand out in any way since everyone else was doing the same thing. Their best feature is the amount of energy they have as a group and that kind of got lost with this song as the solo singers took over. 6. Eric Jones - A (better) variation of this same trick actually managed to fool Penn and Teller on their show, but the camera did him no real favours here. It was definitely an improvement over the last one though and I still dig his calm demeanour, even if it results in a performance that feels slow at times. 5. Mike Yung - This was looking like an especially weak episode for the singers until Mike came along. Stripping (thankfully not literally) things down really helped bring out what made him so special in the first place and this was just a solid, enjoyable and captivating performamnce. He moves around like he's about to fall over or blow up any second, but It's part of the charm. 4. Sara & Hero- Yeah I'm all out of excuses, this is just fun. It's not the best dog act ever or anything and this week especially was a bit sloppy, but it is impressive how she manages to come up with (mostly) new tricks each time and the dogs seem more into it than half the humans on this show. 3. Preacher Lawson - The material, the delivery and the timing all worked this week and I found myself wanting more once he was done so that's never a bad thing. There's a danger of him going over the "hilarious" line into "annoying" territory whenever things get too manic, but he's managed to keep it nicely balanced so far. If Tyra didn't chop him into pieces he should do very well in the voting tonight. 2. Billy and Emily England - So THATS what the Lannisters do when Game of Thrones goes off air. I have to hand it to them, I thought this act would run out of things to do a LONG time ago, but they have managed to keep it going and impress us with new moves each time. It's not as easily noticeable as a singer singing a new song which will leave a lot of people complaining that "they do the same thing every time" but look closer and they have done just about everything they could so far to make this diverse. 1.Darci Lynn - This was funny, charming. creative, technically impressive and vocally better than half the singers we heard. AND SHE DID IT WITH HER MOUTH CLOSED. I was a bit sceptical of Darci back in the audition rounds, but she's more than proved herself a worthy contender. You completely forget her age as you watch her, she's a natural on stage and right up there with Terry Fator and Paul Zerdin. A fairly decent episode, we can probably say goodbye to the choir and I just can't see Yoli making it out of this either. Darci and Chase are sure locks for the top 3, with Preacher as the likely 3rd one. I have a good feeling about Sara & Hero making it through one way or the other too. The last spot could honestly go to anyone. Mike Yung is the most deserving out of the singers, but his fanbase isn't quite as big as some of the others and I fear he'll unfairly get thrown under the bus. Johnny failed to impress, but he still has fans out there and it's hard to deny he has a great voice. Watching Eric is a bit like hearing your personal therapist talk about their day, but people like magic on this show and he did good this time. Evie is still a danger to everyone due to her story. Billy and Emily were great as always, but has America gotten sick of watching them spin around? I have no idea, It could be any of them so I'll just go with my gut feeling: 11. DaNell Daymon & Greater Works 10. Yoli Mayor 9. Eric Jones 8. Billy and Emily England 7. Mike Yung 6. Johnny Manuel (loses judges choice) 5. Evie Clair (winss udges choice) 4. Sara & Hero (win dunkin save) 3. Preacher Lawson 2. Chase Goehring 1. Darci Lynn

The good news is that "sob story" acts don't usually end up winners on this show and with this season being FULL of them, having someone like Darci is actually kind of refreshing.

I think it's important to remember that these acts are just magicians/mentalists, the clairvoyants claiming to be real psychics or Colin acting like Sherlock Holmes are just stories, characters created to make the act more interesting, they are no more true than Piff being an actual magic dragon (sorry to break all your hearts). The talent is their ability to perform these magic tricks live.

Ain't no malfunction stopping this choo-choo train: 12. Oscar Hernandez - So what incriminating material does Oscar have on Simon and who must we report this obvious extortion to? This was pretty decent as long as you muted the sound and pretended the backing dancers were the ones out of sync. I mean yes, he's entertaining, but half-way through the act it looked like even he was seeing this routine for the first time. The novelty of "fat guy twerks to obnoxious music" ran out long ago and Oscar is just here so Simon can live out his dream vicariously through him. 11. Final Draft - If this was the final draft, I'd hate to find out what the rough draft sounded like. Having these guys screech like baby mice added nothing to a growing list of singers already on the show. 10. Angelina Green - Kids grow up so fast, don't they? It seems like just 2 weeks ago Angelica was only 9. All jokes aside, this was a puzzling GB pick in the audition rounds and it continued to be one here. Yes, she has a decent voice, but the nerves really got to her and you could tell. I guess I should be happy she didn't pick another Ed Sheeran song, the show was starting to look and sound like his tribute concert. 9. Junior and Emily - Well, they gave it their all and it worked well enough for now, but you could still clearly tell the human spinner is the only real signature move they have as they tried masking it with fancy hand movements and sound effects taken from Michael Bays favourite spotify playlist. I can't see them having anything else to show us, but they deserve credit for redeeming themselves. 8. Chase Goehring - Mini-Sheeran did good and I continue to appreciate how he's willing to put his own music out there, but I can't exactly see anyone humming this tune tomorrow and the whole thing felt a bit sleepy at times. Still, he has charm even if he's not the best singer we have this season. 7. Kechi -I think she really outdid herself tonight, but my low placing of her comes from the fact that I simply wasn't that big of a fan of the song. It did manage to to show off her voice nicely though and like Mandy, she's proven she is far more than just a sob story and deserves to be in the competition. 6. Mike Yung - Mike continues to be a force of nature, but this felt a bit too forced, like he had just spent a day being dragged around various fashion outlets by an eager stage hand and just nodded along to everything the producers suggested to him. The guy could sing the phonebook and sound good and frankly it would probably have been more ineresting than this particular track. 5. Oskar and Gaspar - Yeah this was definitely a step in the right direction. It was essentially a Bond opening title sequence done live on stage, which sounds cooler than it actually is. Don't get me wrong, it WAS cool, but I still don't quite think they work as a solitary stage act. In a video or part of something bigger though? Amazing. Also these guys clearly haven't paid attention to the show if they think going with a bunch of random models and un-charismatic tech geeks to showcase these effects is a good way of gaining votes. 4. DaNell Daymon & Greater Works - They opened the show and were proabbly meant to be a nice little teaser for better things to come later but...I had fun? I like fun. The whole thing just felt big and professional and the amount of energy they all have on stage combined with the fun moves just made me feel happy. 3. Sara and Hero - And this is the point at which you stop reading and conclude I've lost my mind. I couldn't help myself but enjoy it this time around. I think Sara has gotten better each round and found new ways to surprise us. Starting off small and slow means she still has tricks to show us, where Pompeyo felt like they were starting to run out. It's not the greatest dog act in the world or anything, but it put me in a good mood so I'm letting them have this small victory in my rankings. Besides, the dogs looked like they were enjoying themselves more than anyone else on stage last night. 2. Colin Cloud - Legend has it that Colin's performance is STILL going as we speak. Now, I still really really like the guy and find his shtick creative and fun, it's something a bit different from the usual "IM A PSYCHIC" trope and I even think his showmanship is just fine...this just seemed a bit poorly planned out given the amount of time he was given and the end result ended up both feeling padded and awkwardly rushed at the same time. That being said, it was a good trick and I'm FAIRLY CERTAIN neither the girl on stage nor the one in the audience were plants in the traditional sense. I don't usually like to dissect the tricks on this show so openly, but I feel I have to say a few words to guide people in the direction I really think some of his tricks work. I don't claim to know for certain, but based on things he has said before and the fact he does this exact routine with an audience every night at other festivals I can deduce that a lot his tricks involve "multiple realities" as in when we the TV audience hears him ask people to "think" of a memory, the audience might be asked to write it down and throw the paper into a bucket at the same exact time for example. So when he picks out the audience member, the trick for them is that Colin was able to pick out what they wrote down out of hundreds of other written papers, while the trick for the TV audience is him seemingly deducing stuff. That is just one example of how it can be done, but the trick with the woman on stage follows the same principle (hint: what the woman is "filling out" out the paper might not be what we are led to believe by Colin). So while the trick can certainly be done with plants, I choose to give him the benefit of the doubt here and say he's doing it the much harder way, unfortunately it's hard not to immediately go for the plant option as our first thought. This may be avoided if he would just stop doing the "I'm going to deduce something about you, random audience member" part as it clearly requires some sort of preparation we the TV audience have no clue about and the end result seems too good to be anything but a staged bit if presented the way it is, but I guess it's just there to sell people on the whole "Sherlock" idea. 1. Diavolo - I'm pretty sure a local amusement park is missing their ferris wheel, but it was all worth it. These guys continue to impress and innovate and continue to be one of the most unique acts this season. This is also why I'm terrified we might see some serious injustice being done in the results show, but fingers crossed... I can't help but shake the feeling Bello would have sailed through tonight. You'd think with all the mishaps last week that this would have been a stronger QF, but it was an even bigger mixed bag. Mike, Kechi and Chase should all be safe for a number of reasons while Oscar Hernandez and Junior & Emily seem like pretty obvious sacrifices Colin wasn't at his best, but still impressive enough to probably sail through considering the drought of magicians this year. Final Draft COULD pick up votes, but I'm hoping with Chase here their chances are slim. Things become interesting after that... The episode was weak enough that Diavolo SHOULD sail through, but I also fear the worst. Let's just hope my fears are unjustified for now...Angeline Green looks to be our first GB act in danger, but I doubt she'll do any worse than ending up in the dunkin save, at which point the judges wont let her go even if she loses out on that. Oskar and Gaspar could land anywhere, but the act seems to be splitting people too much and their lack of a clear spokesperson/story makes me think we are waving them goodbye this week. I have a gut feeling Sara and Hero will surprise us once more and do much better than anyone ever would have guessed, leaving them to fight it out with the choir for that last spot. To sum up my predictions, this is what I think will happen: 12. Junior and Emily 11. Oscar Hernandez 10. Final Draft 9. Oskar and Gaspar 8. DaNell Daymon & Greater Works (lose the judges choice) 7. Sara and Hero (win the judges choice) 6. Angeline Green (wins dunkin save) 5. Diavolo 4. Colin Cloud 3. Mike Yung 2. Kechi 1. Chase Goehring

Exactly, there is no reason to "write a script", all the acts you are voting for have been selected by the judges/producers in the first place anyways. If they want specific acts to do better than others, they can enforce that through the introducton videos (sob stories) or judges comments, but generally it really doesn't matter who wins or gets through. There's no need to resort to vote manipulation when the voters are easily swayed by the comments anyways. And if any surprises happen along the way then that's all the better as it garners the show more attention and publicity, which is all that really matters.

Well wasn't that a wonderful trainwreck?. I don't think I've seen AGT screw up so magically in years, from Howie's inappropriate and awkward attempts at jokes, to Mel B storming off during Damians comments, endless technical errors, Tyra running around like a headless chicken in a zebra costume trying to keep it all under control and then her forgetting Merricks age this was some good old fashioned car crash TV, which actually made it curiously entertaining in all the wrong ways: 12. Mirror Image -It's only appropriate this segment ended with one of the worst jokes Howie has ever tried to get away with, and that's saying something. That would have been the most cringeworthy part of the night if I hadn't just sat through their performance. Okay fine, the dancing was better this time but as it's just a disjointed mess of an act without any focus. It's like everything you hate about popular "teen" youtubers together at last in one awful package. What I'm trying to say is, Disney will probably be in touch with them soon to pitch the idea for a show nobody will ever watch so they should be just fine in the future. 11. Brobots & Mandroidz - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/filler 10. Evie Clair - They could just as easily have skipped her performance and just commented on her intro, because that's all this act is about. Her voice is fine and she's a sweet girl, but there is really nothing here to make her memorable when she is on stage. I actually really like the song she sang too, but she made the whole thing uncomfortable by looking like she was terrified those candles were there to attack her. 9. Demian Aditya - Demian has been pretty open about the fact he was specifically asked by the producers to only perform "escape illusions" because the show has never had anything like that before. WELL MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE THE PRODUCTION CREW ARE TOO WASTED TO HAVE A CLUE HOW TO EVEN SET ONE UP PROPERLY. This was just a mess. I'd feel sad for Demian, but even if everything HAD gone right, it would have been the exact same "WATCH ME WASTE SOME CO2 AS I APPEAR BEHIND YOU" fake-out we had seen before minus the wife going crazy. 8. Celine Tam - Wait what? Actual criticism? For a child? Looks like we'll be seeing posh spice taking Mel B's place next year. She's right though, round 1 of mini-divas was won by Angelica as this was a song too big for Celine. I do think we will be seeinga round 2 despite this though. 7. Eric Jones - I actually really like his cool, calm delivery and he has a decent command of the stage, but this was another fairly disjointed performance lacking in anything too amazing. It didn't help that I immediately noticed some pretty big mistakes either. "Is this your card, Howie?". No, no it really isn't (take a look at the signature position). I've seen him do much better on Penn and Teller Fool Us so I know he has more in him, but I was left underwhelmed this time. 6. Johnny Manuel - I was fully expecting him to oversing this and make me annoyed at him, but it turned out to be a fairly pleasant performance. Although I was too busy staring at the band in the box underneath him, wondering when a curtain would fall so they could disappear as Piff jumped out of a trap door. Now THAT would have won my vote. 5. Pompeyo Family Dogs - Cute sums it up best. But in a night full of disappointments, some dogs doing the conga line was pleasantly entertaining. 4. The Masqueraders - I just like the music these guys make, so I'm probably overrating them as the harmonies really weren't great and the backing track was trying it's best to drown them out. Also the middle guy looks like a retired Samuel L. Jackson, which makes the whole act at least 110% better. 3. Merrick Hanna - Yeah, I'm still on board the hype train. He's starting to run out of new moves and at times the dance didn't fit the music, but he keeps improving round after round and has figured out how to make an act like this work on the big stage. The projection added a ton too and that coupled with the music and the kids charm created something kind of enchanting on stage. 2. Mandy Harvey - Speaking of enchanting, I haven't really felt much of anything while listening to the singers on this show but Mandy managed to take me away for a moment and left me wanting more. 1. Light Balance - What did Mirror Image accidentally trip over a cable while somersaulting backstage, because I call sabotage! Despite all of that, this was just brilliant. It's easy to compare them to Team iLuminate and just write them off as a copycat, but they have found their own style and I really REALLY hope people get behind them as this is one of the collest things we have seen all season. I found this entire episode to be a hot mess, which makes the results that much harder to predict. We can probably count Mirror Image (unless reddits "vote for the worst" plan works out) and Brobots out. Demian has a lot of fans online, but most of those are probably people from Indonesia who can't vote anyways and his mess of a performance should be a certain death sentence. Mandy, Merrick and Johnny I'd consider locks to get through. I'm also not willing to believe Celine will go anywhere so soon, at worst she'll be in the dunkin save and still make it out one way or the other. The same probably goes for Evie I'm afraid, like it or not people will eat her story up and if she doesn't make it to the top 5, she'll likely still be sent through by the judges. That leaves 4 acts competing for 2 spots and hell if I know what will happen. It seems unlikely a magician would go out this early, but people seem to have caught the same mistakes I did during Erics performance. Any way you look at it Light Balance SHOULD make it through, but we know what has happened to similar acts like Siro-A in the past. The good news is that should they fail to make it tonight, they at least have a good chance of ending up as the wild card as an apology for the technical problems and not actually being able to peform in front of the audience. I like the Masqueraders, which automatically means they are in danger, if a music act is getting the axe tonight, I can see them as the likeliest one. The Pompeyo dogs could honestly end up ANYWHERE, top 5, dunkin save or bottom 3 I have NO idea. So I'm just gonna go by gut feeling: 12. Brobots & Mandroidz 11. Mirror Image 10. Demian Aditya 9. Pompeyo Family Dogs 8. Eric Jones (loses judges choice) 7. The Masqueraders (wins judges choice) 6. Light Balance (win dunkin save) 5. Evie Clair 4. Celine Tam 3. Merrick Hanna 2. Johnny Manuel 1. Mandy Harvey

The lights are on, the judges are in and Tyra is dressed like a discontinued Monster High doll, YES IT'S TIME FOR THE LIVE SHOWS. 12: Yoli Mayor - Yeah, while I wouldn't say she was anywhere close to being bad, this wasn't anything remarkable in terms of the show either. It's a shame, but it's also about time we start cutting these singers out so... 11: Artyon & Paige - Something terrible happened last night, I found myself enjoying these 2. Blame it on the drop of wine I had earlier or poisonous gas in the air but this was a fun, energetic routine. The girl still gives off a "Honey Boo Boo beauty pageant" vibe at times, but they gave it their all and I really did like them. 10: In the Stairwell - Military, Military, Military. Military? Military! Despite the pandering, these guys would make for a pretty watchable reboot of Glee and they seem to be getting better each time we see them so I have to give them props, It just felt like this had lasted 10 minutes by the time they were done. 9: Christian Guardino - While you could say this wasn't anything remarkable considering the shows history either, I like his voice and he managed to find his way out of that funhouse mirror room they stuck him inside of so that's commendable on its own. 8: Angelica Hale - If you covered my eyes with tape (Tape Eyes, coming to an audition round near you 2018) and told me her age I probably wouldn't believe it. I was familiar with the song before and she gave a a VERY good rendition of it. She'll never be my favourite act, but the girl has pipes. 7: Just Jerk - The timing these guys have is absolutely amazing, they don't even move like individual people, it's like a transforming robot shedding off bits to fool you into thinking it's more than 1 entity. That being said, the stage production and music made them look a bit like every other dance crew on the show and for once Simon is right, they have the potential to show us something we have never seen before. I'm just worried they might not get the chance... 6: Preacher Lawson - I really really like Preacher, but his delivery was a lot better than his material this time around and that's a bit worrying. He just oozes confidence on stage and you can tell he knows how to work the audience, but I only found myself lightly smirking last night. The material needs work, but his character is on point (OFF THE CHAAAAIN?) 5: The Singing Trump - The shtick is definitely starting to get old, but I don't have it in my heart to rank him any lower. He is just too much fun! It's the one act where the off singing and dancing actually adds to the overall effect and I laughed more during his intro package than Preachers performance, so there's that excuse. 4: Puddles Pity Party - "What? Someone that doesn't sound or look exactly like everyone else on the radio right now? ERROR ERROR SIMONCOWELL.EXE IS NOT RESPONDING. *faceplants the buzzer*". I'm not even going to try and hide the fact that I'm overrating Puddles a bit because he is my favourite singer this season, but even I can admit something was lacking today...And I'm not sure what, Royals is one of his most viewed performances on youtube and the one everyone was asking him to do, so it should have worked out perfectlty. Yet his "sad clown" persona got lost in the mix today and everything felt a bit rushed a manic...Still, a buzzer is ridiculous and insulting to just how good of a performer he really is. I'm really worried for him now. It would be a shame if one of the most memorable contestants this season got eliminated this early on, the show just wouldnt be the same without him in the final. *fingers crossed* 3: Billy & Emily England - The limited nature of the act is starting to show just a TINY little bit, but they did enough to impress. They are basically a synchronized dance act at this point...just with roller skates...and tank tops and it's awesome to watch, but like with several other acts this episode I'm worried for their future on this show. 2: Darci Lynne Farmer - Terry Fator would be proud. It's interesting to think how few ventriloquists we actually get on the show and yet how fantastic they all turn out to be. Darci is no exception, she has a voice, a great personality and manages to be funny and seeing as she is the likeliest person to be crowned the winner at the end I have absolutely no objections to any of it. 1: Bello Nock - AND THEY ALMOST LET THIS GUYS GO. I wanted to slap the judges for that, but at least they had the good sense to bring him back and WOW did he deliver. He proved he wasn't a one trick or even a two trick pony with a performance that was funny, exciting, creative and captivating. Guys like him is what the show is all about and I'm already excited to see what he can do next. This season has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but last night was thankfully a smooth ride up. Even with the amount of singers this episode felt varied and fun and just damn great in general. The only thing souring it a little was seeing Puddles get buzzed by Simon, which was almost as bad as when Piers buzzed Poppycock in the finals. And the fact that we somehow have to send 5 acts home now... I think we can safely throw out Artyon & Paige and probably The Singing Trump. Both fun, but in a strong episode like this they don't really stand a chance. With the amount of singers here Yoli likely got lost in the mix too. And I just have a bad gut feeling about Just Jerk. If there is any justice in the world, Bello will go through, but knowing how the audience treats danger/circus acts I wouldn't be surprised if he was one of the 3 in the [INSERT PROMOTER HERE] save. Hopefully he will be saved by the judges in that case. Puddles is the one I'm most worried about and that is definitely not something I was expecting. He SHOULD have enough fans to at least get him into the middle 3 and probably win the [INSERT PROMOTER HERE] save, but I can also see that buzzer ruining his chances and him barely missing out, which would be a tragedy big enough to actually justify his usual facial expression. Darci, Angelica and Preacher are certain locks to go through in my eyes. All of them seem to have a strong fanbase that will surely vote them through. I have a good In The Stairwell will likely be in the top 5 too thanks to those patriot and horny lady votes. This leaves Christian Guardino and Billy & Emily England fighting for the last spot and as much as I want and hope it's Billy & Emily that make it, Christian is likely in the top 5 even with a somewhat underwhelming performance. So my overall predictions for tomorrow: 12. Artyon & Paige 11. Yoli Mayor 10. The Singing Trump. 9. Just Jerk 8. Billy & Emily (lose the judges choice) 7. Bello Nock (wins the judges choice) 6. Puddles Pity Party (dunkin save) 5. Christian Guardino 4. In The Stairwell 3. Preacher Lawson 2. Angelica Hale 1. Darci Lynne Farmer It should be a VERY interesting (and slightly terrifying) results show.

SO HOW ABOUT THAT LAST GAME OF THRONES EPISODE EH? EH? OH? Oh we are not doing that here? I..I'm supposed to talk about the last Americas Got Talent round instead? *runs* *sigh* For various reasons this might have been the most frustrating episode this season yet.. 7. Artyon and Paige - Remember those family photographs your mom forced you to do? The ones where you had to smile and pretend you enjoyed sitting next to your slightly creepy uncle? That's what this felt like. In a reasonable and fair world these 2 would have been called up with Merrick and the better one would have gone through (Merrick) but this is AGT so all reason goes out the door as we make room for strangely sexual numbers performed by prepubescent children. 6. In the Stairwell - 1. Audition for AGT. 2. Perform a backstreet boys song. 3. Profit. I liked these guys the last time around and still do, but they are clearly just here to take up a spot in the bottom 4 in an upcoming live show and nothing more. 5. Johnny Manuel - Oh hello nice singer man, are you going to sing for us? Do you need anything before you start, maybe some water or a backrub? Oh you are good to go? GREAT! Oh wait this isn't as good as last time, no this wont do. Just start over and do what you did last time and we'll pretend the last bit didn't happen. OMG YOU ARE AMAZING, YOU ARE HITTING THE EXACT SAME NOTES YOU DID LAST ROUND I'M BLOWN AWAY I JUST HAVE TO HIT THE GOLDEN BUZZER BEST ACT OF THE NIGHT!!!1111 Oh who are you? Crossbow lady? What? But you didn't even hit the bullseye, anyone can hit that balloon. NEXT. Balancing on chairs? That's only like 5 chairs more than last time, are you kidding us? GET OFF THE STAGE NOW. The Cowellization has spread even further now as the show isn't even trying to hide the fact it gives special treatment to singers. Circus acts like the Popazovs or Bello have to put their lives on the line and reach insane limits only to be unceremoniously let go, while Johnny gets a second chance to reapeat something he already did once before and then be praised to high heaven for it. It's ridiculous. RIDICULOUS. Just like your outfits, Mel B. 4. Kechi Okwuchi - Her story is tragic and heartbreaking but they basically repeated what they already told us in the audition rounds and how much are you willing to bet we'll hear it again next week? There needs to be more to her than just a story and thankfully she does have a lovely voice, but it's not the best we have heard on this show or even this season. It's hard not to feel for her or find her likable though so I guess this is one of those "sob story" acts I find perfectly reasonable, just not exceptional. 3. Pompeyo Family Dogs - What is that accent, why does it change every time she speaks? Can we have them groom the judges next week? There has been just enough time since the Olate Dogs for me to be able to enjoy these guys, even if it's a bit too chaotic at times. If they did end up winning (HIGHLY unlikely) I would just laugh and laugh... 2. DaNell Daymon & Greater Works - I can just imagine the producers spending hours interviewing all the choir members and then patting themselves on the back when they found the one with a completely unrelated and random tearjerker story they could use for cheap emotional manipulation. Because we can't just have happy people singing, goodness no. Choirs always seem like a missed opportunity when it comes to this show, but these guys were energetic and fun and will add a bit of life for the future rounds so i'm A-OKAY with it all. 1. Merrick Hanna - Maybe I've lost my mind, but Merrick felt like a breath of fresh air when he came on. No tears, no forced sob story, just a likable kid who likes to dance like a robot to his moms favourite monday morning songs. WHY NOT. He's smart for incorporating tiny storylines into his performances and not JUST showing off fancy moves and I see potential for this in the upcoming rounds. Simon Cowell is a terrible judge. I'm just gonna come out and say it. Oh don't get me wrong, the guys is excellent on shows like X-factor or American Idol, he clearly knows his stuff when it comes to singers and knows how to put down delusional ones with good humour. He is however completely useless when it comes to anything outside of the singing category. His reactions and opinions regarding variety acts seem to be controlled by random mood swings and are characterized by unreasonable expectations, a general sense of befuddlement and a complete lack of understanding the craft. The only way he is able to make sense of these acts is by focusing on their stories and their personalities, which has created the situation we are in now. You know things have gone wrong when you find yourself agreeing more with Howie Mandel. Things didn't seem this bad when we headed into the judges cut, but these results have been absolutely baffling week after week. You can at least make sense of why someone like Will Tsai was let go, but there's no good reason we lost Tony and Jordan, Bello Nock, Daniel Ferguson, Sirqus Alfon, Xavier Mortimer, Jeki Yoo, Henry Richardsons or even the Popazovs when clear cannon fodder like Evie, Mirror Image, Artyon and Paige, In The Stairwell and Oscar Hernandez made it through. Was Sirqus Alfon the greatest act the show has ever seen? No, but they were INTERESTING and FUN and CREATIVE and honestly I would have been looking forward to their next performamce much more than anyone elses we saw today. Even coming back to Will Tsai, sure he disappointed this episode but surely there is a lot more POTENTIAL for him in the future considering his mindblowing audition, where as an act like Artyon and Paige are clearly going nowhere. It seems predictability has become the norm and anything odd and quirky is slowly being eradicated so we can make room for more singers. It's enough to make you wonder if acts like Piff, The Regurgitator or Tape Face would have even made it into the live shows this year.