I’m shocked that there’s not a thread about it already. After watching it I figured I’d wait for someone to else to start a thread and I’d comment in it, since I don’t really have enough opinions to start one of my own. But since no-one else has, here we go.
Howard seems good as a judge. He fills Piers’s role as brutally honest pretty well. I like him.
As for the acts. I’m surprised at a couple that went through, like the little girl and her father singing, but then I figure the ones that weren’t that great will just get cut in Los Vegas.
And I’m probably the only one, but after Fighting Gravity and Team iLuminate I just couldn’t get into yet another glow in the dark act.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode. Fingers crossed I see something that blows me away.
I tuned in strictly to watch Howard Stern and was very impressed. He’s a good judge without being a total ass, and showed a lot of sentiment toward some of the more emotional acts. These talent shows ALL need a judge who tells the brutal truth.
There were a few decent acts but honestly I’ll be looking forward to this show moving along a little better. The editing and production was utterly painful to watch. Less “Snapple chat”, judges banter, Nick Cannon backstage nonsense and MORE of this “talent” the show is supposedly about. If it doesn’t pick up I can’t imagine hanging in there with it until the end.
Yeah, I wasn’t too impressed with any of the acts that went through. Sometimes when the judges gush over some of the acts I have to wonder if it’s part of their contract. Like that guy who “turned the building into a musical instrument.” I thought it was fairly decent, but not a $1,000,000 act.
The one that really struck me when all the judges raved over the ‘originality’ of the guy who sang “You are so beautiful” – are you kidding??? He basically copied the original, note for note, intonation for intonation.
The street dancer guy at the end WAS pretty amazing I thought.
This made my head wobble. You Are So Beautiful is often mimiced. John Belushi did it right in front of Joe Cocker on SNL. I didn’t get it. But I think a lot of the musical acts sound much better live than they do on TV. There might have been something I missed there. I don’t like to judge any music too harshly anyway, I’ve got kind of a tin ear.
But they seem to be passing acts through that are pretty ordinary. I haven’t seen one this season that looks like a million dollar act. Sometimes the acts get better when it becomes a competition, but sadly, they often get worse. I think Howard is trying to shed his bad boy image by being nice to the entrants, Sharon is trying to pass along all the acts that Piers used to nix, and Howie is still an idiot.
I was dumbfounded yesterday when a lame ventriloguist with a dog gimmick was moved on after they’ve seen Terry Fator. Fator is the only ventriloquist in history that wasn’t lame. And today, did I get this right? Did they actually send a juggler who dropped stuff on to Vegas?
My wife said something similar after Howard called him a breath of fresh air.
The only two I thought were great was the opera guy and the contortionist dancer. And although I agree that they’re putting through mediocre acts so far, in fact it seems more so than in past seasons, remember that in Vegas there are three groups and I have a strong feeling that just about everybody chosen this week will be in the group that immediately goes home.
After a brief curiosity, I no longer watch these shows. Aside from one or two early American Idol contestants, none of these acts will ever be heard from again. And Britain’s Got Talent gave the top prize to a someone whose dog does tricks. That’s not even David Copperfield great.
Essentially, these shows are a re-hash of The Ed Sullivan Show. I’d prefer that they canned the judges and let the viewers make their own snide comments at home. Get one or two name performers every week, working for scale like on Letterman.
TV needs to stop injecting drama into places where it’s not necessary. This is not much better than a lottery. If your act is worth a million bucks, you get that in bookings after your appearance. If you’re not planning to take the act on the road, then why should you win a popularity contest against someone who is genuinely trying to make their way in the business?
Oh, I just remembered. I missed the first act. They came on and then the show got interrupted with local news of the Oregon primaries. When they went back to the show the judges were praising the performers and voted them through.
Seeing how mediocre just about every other act was I’m not sure if I’m interested enough to go to NBC.com or Hulu or whatever and see what I missed.
I’ll agree that so far I haven’t seen anyone that “wowed” me or made me think they were million dollar acts, but it was also only the first two shows and lord knows what they’re gonna see next, so I’ll give it time.
I am interested to see how the dynamic of the three judges works in the long term since they no longer have the “straight guy who knows his stuff” guy (Piers). Instead they now have the kinder gentler voice of reason (Sharon) and TWO goofballs instead of just the one.
As I mentioned before, Howard is trying to shed the slimy image some have of him, but I expect him to get tougher over time. He and Sharon are old friends, and I think Sharon is agreeing with him a lot to make a point about Piers. While Sharon and Howard both like Howie, they probably find him annoying, and lacking in judgement, an important quality for a judge to have. As usual Sharon wants to avoid ever being the one to say no.
I’ve probably posted this before, but I wish they would simply bar ‘ordinary’ singers from this competition.
Ordinary meaning you just get up and sing. If you juggle and sing, or tap dance and sing, or sing underwater or any other stunty type thing, okay. But there are plenty of other shows that showcase singers, let’s keep this one for something DIFFERENT.
And I think someone needs to come up with Bingo cards for the home viewer to play along as they send acts through: cute little girl belter? check. Spunky grandster with an attitude? check. Lame magician? check. Animal act where the animal basically does nothing? check, check. Juggler who drops stuff? check Opera singer? check.
Why the singers? I understand there are other shows for them to appear on, but I like the acts that actually show talent, something missing from a lot of them, and some of the singers seem to actually have. For instance, the plethora of dance team acts leads me to believe that doesn’t require that much talent. And I can juggle all sorts of things if I don’t have to catch them.
I agree with you on all points, and yet I will watch the whole season. I might be more inclined to endure “regular singers” who sing originals, but c’mon. A million dollars for nothing but covers? Don’t forget to add “average singer with hard luck story” to the Bingo card.
Based on nothing but a vague guess, I am expecting Howard S. to be harsher when we get into the elimination rounds. At this stage they can be nice to everyone.
Through the magic of DVR I can watch an hour of AGT in 30 minutes. I could shave a few minutes off that but I’ll admit that I kind of like Nick.
The place I am living at now has no DVR, I can only pray that I’m back at home with mine when they have the voting rounds because I do that with the results shows. FF through everything but the reveals, I knock out that show in about 10 min.
Never watched the show before. I was drawn in by Howard Stern being a judge.
He’s fine as a judge; I hope the rest of the country gets to know him.
That said - what demographic does this show usually go after?
30+? 17±30? Perhaps I’m an outlier because I’m a Howard fan who is over 50.
So I ask because I find the Baz Luhrmann - ADHD - cut every 5 seconds editting style incredibly annoying and nearly unwatchable. If the show skewed older, and they changed their visual style to match what the directors perceive to be what Howard’s fans would like, then they are going to lose the older audience real fast.
There’s a pretty broad demographic because of the broad range of acts. And I think you’re understanding why most people record this show and skip over most of it.
No that’s pretty much how it’s always been. I think they go for the wide variety of ages demographic (read: none) because anyone can try out for the show so everyone can watch, but like most things they try their hardest to skew young so they have Nick Cannon hosting and show pretty young thangs when they show the audience. But overall the quick-cut-obvious-set-up-for-something format has been around for a while
Wow, how snooty. Maybe some of us have heard “real” opera and prefer someone like him instead. And if us unsophisticated musical simpletons enjoy him, and others like him, how is that hurting you any?
I don’t think he was saying the dude wasn’t ‘real opera’. I think he was saying that the audience is wowed because they aren’t used to hearing such a classically trained voice. Don’t know if that drops any points off of the snootimeter, though.