# America's Got Talent '21 sort-of wrapup **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** reality-or-game-show\ **Created:** [September 19, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948 "2021-09-19T21:45:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/1 "2021-09-19T21:45:48Z")
All right, I know y’all don’t care very much, but this is probably the last time I’ll ever write about this show and there’s something I’d like to get a bit of closure on. First off, a quick rundown of the final. Jimmie Herrod (singing) - He’s a Broadway-style crooner with a big voice. Much like all the other Broadway-style crooner with big voices we’ve had here. He belongs on Broadway. I suppose. Lea Kyle (quick change) - Ostentatious but weirdly short finals performance, definitely not on par with what she did in quarters or semis. She reminds me of Kinetic King: what she does is beautiful and amazing to watch, but it’ll never work as a Vegas act because it requires so much setup for about a couple minutes of action. She’d be best off as part of a variety act or simply selling videos. (That still happens, right?) Victory Brinker (opera) - The rap on her is that she can do the high belty notes great but struggles with the rest of the song. Other than that, she’s an opera singer. Not really my thing. _Really_ did not like that the judges picked her over Unicircle Flow. Freaking travesty. 😠 Gina Brillon (comedy) - Ugh. I’m almost always underwhelmed by the comedians here, but usually I can figure out at least how it’s _supposed to_ be funny. Her finals routine left me flat as a pancake. It looks like she just ran out of gas. World Taekwondo Demonstration Team (martial arts) - Wow. And wow again. In terms of skill, energy, passion, and, yes, wow factor, this one blew everyone else away…per usual. Nothing we haven’t seen before, but they hardly needed it. Sadly, martial arts never wins on this show, so this was essentially a final audition tape. A 25K annuity really isn’t worth much when split that many ways, anyway. Aiden Bryant (hoop acrobatics) - What he does is really, really pretty, like a poor man’s Cirque Du Soleil act. How many people will pay to see this in a city with _actual_ Cirque Du Soleil acts is questionable. Brooke Simpson (singing) - She’s strikes me as a very good radio singer, and a First Nations-er doing good is always a good story. She deserves a solid recording contract. Not sure why anyone needs to see her in Vegas. Dustin Tavella (mentalism) - Bleah. I see someone like Shin Lim and think, oh yeah, he’s definitely got it. Tavella is like that annoying uncle who insists on showing you this awesome new trick he learned and doesn’t know the first thing about delivery and takes forever to get anywhere. He’s by far the most _amateurish_ contestant I’ve ever seen in a final. Josh Blue (comedy) - All right, I have to be _that guy_ again. I think he’s pretty funny, and he sounds really cool and friendly, and he’d be a lot of fun at parties. But I find his act absolutely _exhausting_ to listen to for more than a minute or so at a stretch. It’s like, okay, you have trouble moving, we get it, find something else in the world to talk about! The fact that he’s also a ringer (he won something in '06, forget what) also leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Northwell Nurse Choir (singing) - It’s a choir. Whaddya expect? 🤷‍♀️ I would’ve pulled for World Taekwondo Demonstration Team…after Unicircle Flow got shafted (😠), they were the only one left that I found truly impressive…but in my heart I knew they didn’t have a chance. In all honesty, I would’ve been fine with anyone except Victory Brinker, Gina Brillon, Josh Blue, or Dustin Tavella Winning. So of course [this happens](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EYOo0b0Egw). 🤦‍♂️ I’m…at a loss here. Conventional wisdom would’ve called it a toss-up between Herrod and Blue, whereas if the quality of the Acceptable Story was the deciding factor, Northwell Nurse Choir (Heroes! Angels! Inspiraition! Covid!) would’ve nailed it. Baffling, baffling choice. But I suppose no more baffling than Brandon Leake, a goddam _talker_, somehow beating _everyone else_ last season because beat poetry was a thing that was hip and cool all across the nation in 2020. Because reasons. (Seriously, has there been _any_ discussion of this whatsoever?) And that’s what made this show so frustrating to watch (y’know, other than the judges and buzzers and booing and crap). All the truly impressive acts…the light shows, the effects-driven theater, the high-flying aerials, all gone, as are the corny novelty acts and general funny stuff. They know they don’t fit the formula and aren’t going to waste their time anymore. Then I see Brandon flippin’ Leake win, and then I see Dustin blinkin’ Tavella win, and I ask myself, what the hell _is_ the formula? Shows like American Ninja Warrior, Hell’s Kitchen, and The Voice are total junk food as well, but at least you know what’s being served up. AGT has become the NFL, where someone jumps out of nowhere to win it, and it makes no sense, and the _way_ it makes no sense is totally different from how the last guy won. You’ll hear the naysayers lament how far it’s fallen, but in my estimation, it didn’t fall, it _mutated_. Into a very strange beast where a completely undeserving act always wins…but it has to be the _right_ completely undeserving act. Good? Bad? Eh…at this point I’d say “at least it’s different” fits. I welcome your thoughts, though! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/2 "2021-09-19T22:01:05Z")
We voted for the Taekwondo group every single week. Best group act since V. Unbeatable. I was stunned when “guy who I already forgot” won. I didn’t even realize he was getting a lot of votes and I don’t remember a single trick he did the entire time. My household(wife, kids, me) had been saying the entire time that this was the lowest talent level we’d seen overall in any season not including the last one, which was at least impacted by the pandemic. Kodi Lee is a great talent, it’s been downhill the last two years. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/3 "2021-09-19T22:01:48Z")
They doing a “Champions” season this January? Oh, and BGT didn’t even happen this year. If you didn’t see last year, the winner was even worse than the AGT one this year. Some mildly comedic singer who was a total hack. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2021, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/4 "2021-09-19T22:03:19Z")
Sorry for the third straight post here by we were wondering: Is this show a victim of the tape-delayed viewing so common now? We see it the next day and are hardly ever aware enough to vote. I think the voting is primarily done by the people who watch it live and I bet that is not the audience who picks the best stuff. We see it on Hulu the next day and I only vote when I remember to do so. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/5 "2021-09-20T03:56:31Z")
No Champions for the foreseeable future. [This was all I could find](https://www.goldderby.com/article/2021/americas-got-talent-the-champions-season-3-covid/). The main problem appears to be that it’s really tough now to gather up a sizable number of former contestants who are willing to compete for a measly $25,000. As far as the level of talent goes, I have to ask, is NBC even _trying_ to get quality acts nowadays? All season it was tragedy, diversity darling, “courage”, “inspiration”, all those yummy Acceptable Stories. I mentioned this in the American Ninja Warrior thread, if that’s a requisite for getting airtime, that’s going to severely limit who _can_ get airtime. Worse, I noticed that acts which can produce half-baked comedy or wrenching drama with the judges tend to get favoritism, from both them and the voters. Be interesting, in a shameless schadenfreude way, to see just how quickly Dustin Tavella’s magic “career” plummets into a canyon. I seriously believe he’s about to become AGT’s Lee Dewyze. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/6 "2021-09-20T14:15:45Z")
I was very surprised by who won. I don’t even remember his name. I thought for sure the comedian (2nd place) would have won. I never voted, so I guess I can’t complain. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/7 "2021-09-21T04:20:19Z")
Josh Blue was 3rd. Complete results [(from Primetimer)](https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/122278-s16e20-finale-results/?tab=comments#comment-7014024): 6th-10th (unspecified): Gina Brillon, Jimmie Herrod, World Taekwondo Demonstration Team, Victory Brinker, Northwell Nurse Choir 5th: Lea Kyle 4th: Brooke Simpson 3rd: Josh Blue 2nd: Aiden Bryant Winner: Dustin Tavella Just to clarify, my beef with Blue being here was that he’s had many, many years to build up his reputation and fanbase, which I saw as a grossly unfair advantage. If he was just this random handicapped guy nobody had heard of, he would’ve been lucky to reach the quarters. (I felt much the same about Michael Winslow, even though never thought he really had the support to go far.) This used to be a show about _discovering_ talent, not giving established superstars a shot at another big (well, biggish) payday. If NBC wants a “hall of fame night” show, why don’t they just make one? Hey, couldn’t be any worse than The Masked Singer. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/8 "2021-09-21T14:02:12Z")
Yep, you’re correct. For some reason, I was thinking Josh Blue was in 2nd. I forgot about the magician. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-got-talent-21-sort-of-wrapup/950948/9 "2021-09-21T14:35:28Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I was stunned when “guy who I already forgot” won. I didn’t even realize he was getting a lot of votes and I don’t remember a single trick he did the entire time. This. He was the least _interesting_ magician I’ve ever seen. Not funny, not charismatic, not astonishing, nothing. He would natter on and on leading up to some totally not amazing ‘reveal.’ The one that really got me was when he did a three minute (seemed much longer) monologue about how much he loved his wife and child and how he was so lucky they loved him.