JMarie99

I started watching The Voice toward the end of last season - around Top 10 I believe. I tried to watch it occasionally throughout the years but could never get into it - didn't care for the format, there was always a judge (coach?) or two that I just could not stand, etc. I've always been a huge Idol fan and I was really sad when that show ended, which is why I watched the last few episodes of last season's Voice, and I really enjoyed it. So this season I decided to watch from the beginning, try to get into how the whole team thing works, and give it a fair chance. I actually missed the first Olympics-night episode so last night was my first, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I am not a fan of Miley Cyrus but I actually found her cute and funny last night (flowers and all) and she seems knowledgeable about music and I think she will make a good judge/coach. Alicia Keys- what can I say. An amazing talent and she certainly doesn't need makeup to look beautiful! And she seems like a very warm person. I've always loved Adam. I find Blake annoying but I can deal with him. It seems like he was really picking on Adam but I'm guessing there is just some ongoing rivalry between them? It's interesting how the girls beat the guys in getting singers on their teams. I laughed out loud when Adam was bragging that he won three seasons and Miley responded with "Out of TEN??!!" Too funny! As for the contestants, I was really impressed with the overall talent. I'm looking forward to the rest of the auditions and then learning how this whole coach/team thing works.

Yeah, I voted for cheesy Sal. I felt bad when he got booted off Idol so early. But he was all wrong for that show. I think he deserves a chance on this show. So he's got a cheesy persona instead of a sob story. So what. He makes me smile. He won't win of course but I'm happy for him that he got this far.

I agree with you, Camom. I've gone from not finding anything special about Grace, to finding her downright annoying, to finding her practically unlistenable.

Grace sounded even worse than usual last night. By the end of the song I think I may have heard some actual words and musical notes come out of her. But for most of the song it was all crackles, squeaks and mumbles. Gah. The judges' over the top praise made me want to gag. Glad it's not just me. Lori Mae was horrible too. I actually watched the Olympics gymnastics competitions and even I didn't catch the whole "not THAT Laurie Hernandez" thing. Nothing she said struck me as funny - and then she resorts to insult comedy? I've never liked that type of comedy - couldn't stand Don Rickles and the only one I've ever liked is Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. But coming from a child I thought it was particularly unappealing. The joke about Mariah outgrowing Nick was the worst. I do feel bad about trashing kids, but for me Grace and Lori were the worst of the night. I liked Deadly Games. They truly do combine beauty and danger. And I loved Jon Dorenbos, and I don't usually care that much for magicians. He was my favorite of the night.

Very interesting, Totale. It is obvious that Grace is imitating that strained, crackly style of singing and that can't possibly be good for her vocal cords, especially because she is so young and still growing.

Just want to stick up for Idol here. I can totally believe that they manipulated the votes in the early seasons because of all the power voting, but I have to believe that once they redid the voting procedures in the later seasons, they would not have to invoke that clause. At least that is what I choose to believe in my naive little bubble. :) So I'm at the hairdresser today and people are actually talking about "that 12-year-old girl on America's Got Talent" and how amazing she is. So yeah, I guess we may as well declare her the winner already. It's just personal preference but I just cannot stand her cracky, squeaky, affected style of singing. I thought that style went out awhile ago - nowadays I hear it mostly on commercials. But even though that style may have run its course, I guess when that voice is coming out of a 12-year-old it's a whole new thing. I do think it's very impressive that she writes her own songs, and her song this week sounded pretty good. But oh, that voice. Like nails on a chalkboard to me. Like I said, it's personal preference. But please, Simon, stop calling her the next Taylor Swift. Except for starting out young and writing their own songs, I don't see the comparison. And Taylor may not have the most amazing voice in the world but at least she sings like a real person. I still love Brian Crum. Broadway or not, sob story or not ... I could listen to him all day. And he sings with such passion.

I'm not sure about this kinder, gentler Simon. I do enjoy his more lighthearted personality, but I was very disappointed that he cast his vote for Kadie Lynn over ThroWings. When he was on Idol he criticized the contestants for every little thing. And here he tells this extremely mediocre singer that "we have a little superstar on our hands!"? Give me a break. It seems obvious that he wants a singer to win, and there are a few good singers in this competition, but this little girl is not one of the best. As someone said in another thread, you can find a little girl in cowboy boots singing a country song at any county fair. There was not one thing special about her. And I thought ThroWings put in an amazing performance and deserved to go through.

A guy who broke watermelons with his head once made it through?? See, that's why I never tried to watch this show before. I turned it on once a few years ago and saw a woman with several birds fluttering around her head and shoulders. I turned it right off so I don't know if she made it through or not. I'll bet she did. I would put the tassel-twirling elderly stripper in the same category. My point is, this show features a lot of different types of talent and I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, but when stuff like this gets put through, or even gets a golden buzzer, it can make it hard to take the show seriously.

Thanks, LadyMustang! I'm glad to hear this. I'm sure Nick explained it at some point, but American Idol had the Twitter save too, and I was as frustrated by that as you are with DWTS, so I was afraid AGT did the Twitter save as well. I'm glad at least this show is keeping it simple for us "googlers"!

I'm still a bit of an idiot regarding this show. How exactly does that "Dunkin Save" work? Do you vote the same way as you do during the performance show, or do you have to use Twitter? I was watching Master Chef and then some Convention stuff last night and I had DVR'd AGT and watched it later, so I was too late to vote for the three acts that were "on the bubble." I was holding my breath when it came down to Deadly Games and Hara and the judges were split two and two. I had given some votes to Deadly Games on Tuesday and I really wanted them to go through, and I had this crazy idea that if I had known about the last minute save and had voted for them last night, my one vote might have made the difference! Lol. Anyway I will be sure to watch in real time next week, but I did want to know how that last minute save works, because I'm not on Twitter and won't be able to vote anyway if that's how they do it.

I am new to this show and I'm starting to see the problem with it from my perspective. There were some really good acts, but how do you rate a good singer vs. an impressive danger act vs. a computer-assisted magician vs. a traditional magician etc. etc. I thought Jayna Brown was outstanding tonight and she had the death spot at the beginning of the show and I am one of the apparently few who feel that singers belong on this show, so I voted for her. I was disappointed in Musicality this time around but threw a few votes their way, I guess because I like their spirit. I absolutely do not see the appeal of young comedian Lori Mae. I don't mean to be cruel regarding a child, but while MelB may have found her adorable, I find her anything but. I'm sure she will grow into her looks, but she is going through that awkward stage that many go through, and "adorable" is certainly not a word I would use to describe her. And again I feel bad because this is not her fault, but she seems to have a chronic sinus condition that I find difficult to listen to. When she referred to "tween voters," at first I thought she was saying "tweet voters." More importantly, I just don't find her funny. In fact, her humor today was so predictable I practically could have written her act for her. And I don't like her delivery at all. My son and his friends at her age were very much into political humor, and they had a sarcastic delivery that would have put her to shame. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of magic, whether it's traditional magic or that computer stuff that Hara was doing. Others have said that you can google how the former is done, and as to the latter, well, it's not really magic if it's computer-generated, is it? I thought Deadly Games was good and that couple is very appealing. I don't think the young opera singer is good at all. The 90-year-old dancer hardly even danced but somehow she is "inspirational" because she's 90? And I realize that this is an unpopular opinion, but I am SO tired of Tape Face. I found him somewhat amusing in his first audition and have been bored to death ever since.

But as has been said before, there are NOT "many many singing shows"! The Voice is the only one that's left! This statement may have been true when AGT first started, but not anymore. And if I'm going to forced to watch a wanna-be stripper shaking her fat ruffled ass, and a old man shouting a heavy metal song, I think people can suffer through a singer now and then!

Usually I am not taken in by the sob stories, but I really identified with Brian Crum's mom. What she said about gay bullying - how they whisper about it in elementary school and by middle and high school they are openly calling him a faggot - brought me to tears because that's exactly the way it was for my son. And he wasn't even fat. That being said, he doesn't need to keep milking this because he's a darn good singer. I am so sick and tired of hearing "Creep" in singing competitions, but this guy made me feel like I was hearing it for the first time. He's got a good voice and he puts so much passion into what he's singing. Plus he's good looking. I hope he goes far. I think the red-haired female singer should have been put through over the mom-son dance team. I felt bad for her. She was much better than that Moyà Angela they put through last week.

I'm sure that there are different types of British accents just as there are in the U.S. Perhaps Mel B comes from a different part of Great Britain than Simon. Plus I believe her father comes from the Carribean. I personally find her accent kind of charming, although I agree she can sometimes be hard to understand.

I loved Howie on St. Elsewhere, one of my favorite TV shows ever. I forgot about Bobby's World - that was good too. Howie was a talented guy. But once he became Game Show Howie he lost me. I don't find him the least bit funny anymore. My kids grew up with the Spice Girls so I definitely have a soft spot for Mel B, and as stated, being in that group gave her experience in both singing and dancing. Simon is an obvious choice. As for Heidi, she's not just a model but a long time judge on Project Runway. Maybe the producers thought her experience as a judge on that show made her a good choice for this show. But of course on Runway she was judging fashion which is an entirely different thing! Who knows. She doesn't really annoy me though. Village People guy definitely deserved to be put through over that 13 year old comedienne! WTH were they thinking??! The ex-couple aerialists and the balancing kid should have been put through over her too. As well as the other female comedienne. I can't help but think that the 13 year old was put through mainly because of her age.

A lot of people, myself included, do not care for Grace's pinched, strained, affected style of singing. And it's been around for awhile, so there is nothing original about it. She did a good imitation of an "indie" type singer for a 12 year old, but that's about it. Not golden buzzer worthy IMO. Those of us who feel that way are not being "ridiculous." It's just our opinion.

Thanks, rr2911! I plan to stick with it!

The 14-year-old contortionist was actually my favorite. Of course, this is my first experience with this type of show, but I was really impressed. I loved it when she picked up the apple with her feet and bit into it. She and her parents seem like nice normal people. The song by the home-schooled guy cracked me up. I liked the singer who did the Queen song and the OCD guy with the dog, although they both had sob stories. I guess I'm turning into a softie. The sword swallower grossed me out. Yes it's impressive, but I just can't watch that stuff. Only someone as gorgeous as Heidi could get away with drinking garlic tea. Ugh!

I hear you, Lonesome Rhodes! AGT is indeed a place for the most unusual acts to get exposure. I recognize your name from other boards - aren't you the one who refers to judges as "jidges"? Never could figure that one out! But I digress. You say "there are any number of singing competitions." Now that Idol is gone, it's just The Voice, right? Where are these other numbers of singing competitions of which you speak? I have to admit I am getting sucked in to the uniqueness of these acts. But as to the most quirky of them, I remain perplexed as to how they sustain their appeal once the voting begins. Do they just keep doing their same routine, or do they have to vary it somewhat? Guess I'll just have to stick around and continue to watch!

This is my first season watching the show and I started watching only because of Simon Cowell. I'm not sure what to make of this kinder, gentler Simon, but generally speaking I like the way the judges relate to each other, and to be honest I find them more entertaining than some of the acts! I guess I just have to try harder to get into the concept of this show. I understand that most people enjoy the novelty acts and the surprise factor of not knowing what they are going to see next. My main problem is, what is the sustainability of some of these acts? The Quick Changers, for example. I found them entertaining and obviously there is a lot of skill involved in creating the outfits and in the women manipulating them so that they disappear as they are supposed to, but the judges acted stunned and kept saying "how does she DO that" like it was the most amazing thing they had ever seen, and here people on this board have been easily able to google instructions on how it's done. But back to sustainability - what do they do for their next act? Do they have to come up with different outfits? And about the guy who hung things from his nipples etc. Does he just hang different things from different body parts in subsequent acts? People complain about the singers like they don't belong on this show, and I get that because that is not the main focus of the show, but at least they will hopefully sing a different song each time. What do these novelty acts do for a follow up? And finally, people have to stop saying that there are "plenty of other singing shows" for the singers to go on. Idol just ended its final season, if you haven't noticed, and I believe X-Factor ended a couple of years ago. So The Voice is all that's left. It's not fair to say there are lots of other shows. I personally enjoy the singers. Last year as I recall the two finalists were an amazing singer and a ventriloquist and the ventriloquist won. You couldn't pay me to go see a ventriloquist! Anyway I guess this is just not the show for me, but I'm going to keep watching just to see what the more unusual acts do going forward.

Carrie Preston's (Elspeth Tascioni) new sitcom "Crowded" is terrible.

GreenKnight, I agree that Idol will return when The Voice starts to drop in ratings, and I totally believe that will happen. Voice was a novelty at first but as far as I can tell they haven't produced any major stars. Of course I'm biased because I have tried to watch that show and I really dislike it. I disagree with your statement that TV ignored the Idol finale. I had the TV on during parts of today and I saw two major segments on it. One was on the Today Show, and I don't recall the second one because I had the TV on while I was doing other things and I wasn't paying attention. But it definitely got some notice. The Today Show segment was cute because Carson Daly who is on The Voice was giving major props to Idol for starting the whole thing.

But they did change the voting, Jordan27. Now it's "10 votes per method per contestant." I gave LP 10 votes through the Idol app, 10 phone votes and 10 text votes. I've heard people refer to multiple accounts but that would take a bit of effort. But there are no more phones banks where they could gather people to vote over and over again like in the old days.

Call me an Idol nerd, but I actually got chills when Ryan said "For now" at the end of the show. I had read the article that was posted in another thread and thought, well, that's probably just PR, but somehow when Ryan spoke those words, I actually had hope. I literally shrieked to my son (who has been watching Idol with me since Season 2) "oh my God it really is coming back!" I was almost in tears. Even though this show is a shadow of its former self, I'm just going to miss it so damn much. I even tried to watch The Voice several times this season, thinking it might help me get over my Idol withdrawal, but try as I might, I just don't like anything about that show. The format, the turning chairs, the judges/coaches, the battles - I can't stand it. Of course seeing all the past Idol contestants made it that much worse. So many memories - I really enjoyed seeing my favorites again and I even enjoyed seeing the ones I didn't like. Glad they labeled them though, because I never would have recognized Bo Bice, or that Skylar girl with the weight she has gained (not to be catty!). As far as Trent winning, I agree he has an amazing voice, but I just don't care for the tone of it. It's like cilantro - some people can't get enough of it and some people literally spit it out. Some of his notes sound so harsh to me. La'Porsha was really starting to grow on me and I actually voted for her using several methods and I really wanted her to win, but I can't say Trent didn't deserve it. Man, J-Lo really does like to show off her ass, doesn't she? The song wasn't bad but I thought she would never stop shaking that thang.

Oh and let's not forget violence, as in Carrie Underwood vandalizing her cheating boyfriend's vehicle - or what was that song Skylar did in her season, something about little girls being made of "gunpowder and lead"? I happen to find those themes offensive to be perfectly honest. In any event, saying the faith-based songs are "Christian pandering" assumes that doing that type of song is going to result in more votes. That's quite an assumption IMO. I actually had to re-listen to Tristan's song to even realize it was faith-based. And I'm a person who usually pays attention to lyrics. So not only do I not believe that she should be criticized for singing that song, I really don't think it will affect the voting one way or the other.