OK - it was a cheesy rip-off of American Idol, with Simon Cowell as producer, with Regis and Hassellhoff and, well, a cast of B characters.
Still, I got sort of hooked (nothing else on TV on Wednesday nights).
The winner was very talented. For a little girl, she has one hell of a voice and hope to hear from her again - which I am sure I will.
The show had the worst camera work and production values of any show I have ever seen on broadcast television. They would pan to the audience when an act was performing the highpoint of their act on stage; they would get the lighting cues screwed up constantly; the staging was poorly done; they consistently ruined close ups by being in the wrong camera position; the grand finale with the winner was poorly planned and fizzled miserably (bring the family on stage, throw some confetti, anything…it was the biggest dud finale I have ever seen, especially for a million dollar prize!)
I saw bits of it, but it just seemed like an updated version of The Gong Show with an even more annoying cast of characters. A agree that that kid has an amazing voice (are we talking about the young white girl, or some other person?), but ‘rappin’ granny’? Please.
I watched it and was really annoyed by it. It seemed that every other act was a singer, despite the fact that there are sveral other shows devoted to singing. I wanted to see the wierd acts that wouldn’t normally get on stage anywhere, the guy with the bike horns all over him is a perfect example. Yes he got on the show, but the judges didn’t let him past the opening round. Same with countless jugglers, magicians, and almost any “novelty act”. I wouldn’t mind really, but before it started they were marketing it more toward the novelty end of the talent scale. If I wanted to watch singers I’d watch American Idol.
I watched nearly episode. My favorite of all the acts was “Flippy the Magnificent,” even though he barely was on stage.
I’m disappointed that Bianca Ryan won. Like ya’ll said, there are a million singer shows out there, and I didn’t like her voice anyway. Really wanted “The Millers” to win. That twelve year old was stunning on the harmonica.
I only ‘watched’ the finale (my tv landed there when I was putting something on to run in the background while I was cooking). What a snooze! I suppose they had all the finalists perform on the previous show, but it seemed weird to have this whole finale and hardly even mention the finalists, much less have them perform. Had I not YouTubed the winner’s first performance many moons ago, I would never have known whether she could sing or not.
From what I saw of the ghastly finale, I can only imagine what the rest of the show was like. I’d say, at best, it’s a lousy also-ran to American Idol. At worst it’s keeping David Hasselhoff and Brandy famous far longer than they deserve.
I agree that the production values sucked, and the way they handled selecting the winner was just painful to watch, and annoying. What would have been so wrong about just counting down from 10 in the order of votes received? It looked like Regis was herding the poor contestants around the stage like a circus act. Ridiculous.
However, I’m glad that Bianca Ryan won. She honestly does have a gift. It’s not just that she can hit the notes - a miillion singers can do that. It’s about the emotion she expresses in the music. She does it better than most adult singers I can think of. When she did Janis Joplin’s ‘Piece of my Heart’, it was stunning. She just nailed the song - not just the notes, but the feel of it. And the scream she did matched Janis’s perfectly, even down to the way her voice cracked a little. Amazing.
I wouldn’t have minded seeing the Millers win - LD Miller is a true prodigy. But I have to agree with the ‘evil judge’. Having his marginally talented big brother come out and overshadow the harmonica playing was a big mistake. Especially since LD is perfectly capable of carrying a tune all by himself. He’s actually a better singer than his brother as well.
Had he done this song in the final, he probably would have won. And he performed this at age 10.
I was wondering if anyone else watched this show. The earlier episodes were more entertaining than the finale–more weird acts, and more variety. The camera work was incredibly awful. Trained monkeys could have done better. Even untrained monkeys might have been an improvement.
I laughed every time Hasselhoff said something about a contestant’s lack of talent or singing ability. Look who’s talking! :rolleyes:
I’m not surprised Bianca Ryan won. It was either her or the Millers. I’m just glad it wasn’t David and Dania. Piers is right, they’re one trick ponies–they have an impressive act, but after you’ve seen it once, it’s just the same thing all over again. I was really hoping that magician would make it to the finals. I wanted to see what else he could do.
So basically, I knew the jugglers. Except for Vladic (though I know people who know him) and the goofy-ass guy who dropped everything. The juggling community just isn’t all that big, and if you go to the festivals, you meet just about everyone sooner or later. For example, I think all of the Flying Karamazov Brothers probably know me well enough to greet me by name, and two of them I consider friends (Rod and Mark).
I also know Billy Matsumoto who did the fire juggling/DDR thing on Master of Champions. In fact, he watched the episode he was on for the first time on my laptop.
I watched the show where Rappin’ Granny first performed and couldn’t believe she wasn’t buzzed off. Then the only other episode I watched was last week’s finale- and She. Was. Still. There. WTF’in F? Rappin’ Granny? C’mon- she was a novelty at best.
I agree with the comments about crappy production values. I was cringing for Regis- I think the whole time he was thinking “I can’t believe I’m doing this show”. And Hasselhoff at the end- “You’re all winners”, not once, but twice! Then Moesha parroted the same comment.
I kind of liked it; I just like watching these weird things people can do. I agree with most of the criticisms though. If they do the show again, there should be a split between kids and adults, otherwise some cute little kid is going to win every time. I also really don’t like this idea that you need to have one judge who is a jackass to everyone. And the production values did seem ridiculous.
Who is that magician they kept bringing back even though he didn’t make the top ten? He’s really good and really entertaining. We’ll see more of him. That Miller kid, this is the third talent show I’ve seen him on, but yeah, he has staying power. Bianca, too; the girl’s got major pipes. And I don’t think Leonid’s fifteen minutes are up quite yet; there are career advantages to being as far over the top like as he is and I assume casting directors are calling.
David and Dania said they had a 60 minute act. If they do it must get really tedious around the second minute.
Magician was Nathan Burton, a Las Vegas resident and I think I met him once - my neighbors are professional magicians and they are good friends with almost every magician in town - so every time they have a party, we meet more. Miller kid is good, but he is already an old soul, if that makes any sense, and has a dark edge about him. I think Bianca is an amazing talent, not only because she is young, but she really knows how to carry a song - but you can tell she is still a kid at heart, unlike the Miller lad who seems to have grown up faster.
I found out Leonid was actually one of the regular stars at Beaher’s Madhouse, a show at the Hard Rock Casino - so I am sure it isn’t the last we’ll see of Leonid.
I also agree that David and Diana are really spectacular the first time you see them, then they are like Uncle Bob telling the same joke every Thanksgiving dinner. Gets tedious quite quickly.
I really enjoyed the ventriloquist with the two puppets. His act was my 100% favorite from the preliminaries.
It’s sad, I think most of the acts’ first act was significantly better than their second (Mark Faje, The World’s Most Dangerous Comic, being one of them). People had to bring out big guns in order to make it to the next round, and then they had nowhere to go. Another reason why singers have a leg up in this sort of thing. No one says, ‘oh, I’ve already heard him/her sing really well, lame!’ but the juggler who juggles a different pattern, or the ventriloquist who delivers a different dialogue just comes off as repetative.
That’s one thing I like about him–he goes from “I’m just having fun” to “Time until overdose: T minus five years and counting” in a flash. Being a good bluesman or rocker requires balancing those traits. Too light and he’s in Branson for good but too dark puts him in a grave before his time.
Burton kept bringing more with each appearance. Too bad he had to compete with talented kids, though at least they aren’t CUTE kids. Well, MAYBE “cute” but little chance of working up from that, which is in their favor for long careers. Neither Miller nor Bianca can coast on their looks.
Wow. I just saw the “final finale” last night and couldn’t agree with you all more. A terribly produced horribly shot hour of television topped off with the most awkwardly injected needless suspense and a completely anti-climactic ending.
Who decided to put cameras directly behind the Blue Men where all we can see are close-ups of their fake looking masks?
Who decided to cut away to audience or judge shots during literally half of the egg catcher’s catches?
Who decided to completely humiliate half the competitors on national television?
Who decided that the prizes for 4th and 5th place (and not for 2nd or 3rd) was a car and then who decided to not even announce what the prize was anyway? Did these people actually win Leonid the Magnificant? Where was an announcer?
Further, who decided to give a 12 year old and a group of 5 people a car in the first place?
Who decided that a 13 year old’s first reaction to winning a MILLION dollars was to want to give an in depth interview on camera?
Who decided not to even invite her family up there to celebrate?
It clearly wasn’t all just Regis. The director of this show has no business being in the booth anymore. That entire hour was just a fiasco.
