And yet they sent through that crazy red haired elderly lady with the lipstick all over her face and the black eyebrows!!! Just disgraceful!!!

Wow, this news is REALLY shocking. Thank you for letting us know and I’m so sorry it worked out this way. How horrible for you!!!!!

Which night was it on? What instrument did you play & which song were you singing?

I watch AGT, but when it conflicts with SYTYCD, I always choose SYTYCD. So I do watch AGT, but when there is something better on another channel, I watch that. I think AGT is entertaining, but it has potential to be a lot better.

I hate to bring up “The Audition” again, but regardless of if you care about opera or not, the format of this documentary filmed in almost a reality-tv format showed, I think, how a movie or show about a competition can be made compelling viewing without background stories AGT-way, without producers’ telling performers what to sing or to dance, without buzzing and other cheap tactics.
John mention when he “announced” it in his blog how he didn’t expect it to be as entertaining as AGT, but I think it was more so (at least if you exclude “bad” auditions” part of AGT), though “entertaining” is probably not the right word especially given the tragic fate of one of the featured contestants. But it was compelling viewing because of
1. amazing talent
2. inside look into the business, idea of what it takes to succeed
3. surprisingly honest revelations from the contestants that told you more about their personalities in just a few minutes than what you ever learned about contestants on AGT (especially from the youngest and maybe one of if not the most talented guy whose brains were clearly not keeping up with his mouth; or maybe he wanted to show the truth in Anna Russell’s joke: “opera singers have resonance where most of us have brains”, or maybe it was nerves).
4. Knowledgeable judges openly talking about what they look for including not just details of performance but also aspects like contestant’s weight or age. In comparison, the judges deliberations on “Vegas” segments on AGT were just complete filler with nothing at all interesting – unless you consider humiliating the contestants, raising their hopes and then dashing them entertainment. BTW – one thing The Audition showed is that while there are of course rejections in a real life competition, the judges and Met stuff are extremely respectful and supportive and genuinely want contestants to achieve their highest potential.
5. No background stories except for glimpses of them from what some of the contestants choose to reveal
6. Raw tension and honest emotions — you can literally see how nervous some of the contestants are just from body posture as they prepare; looks on other contestants’ faces when a more talented contestant sings which is a mixture of cheering for the other guy and fear for their own chances.

Now, obviously, AGT is different. For example, given that TV audience votes, I doubt AGT contestants would ever be as open in their remarks, though the camera may still catch some things if the contestants aren’t coached. But even if they cannot have these type of revelations, I’d rather just see more talent than constant repeat of background stories. But while AGT cannot obviously be the same as a documentary about real competition, I think there are things AGT producers could’ve learned from Susan Fromke (an award-winning producer of The Audition).

There is also lots of “fakiness” in emotions we see on AGT. “What does it mean to you?” “Everything”. Isn’t it obvious? Do they really need to keep asking this question? “Do you think you have what it takes to win it?” – regardless of what the contestants think, there is no way they are going to answer honestly, so what is the point of asking? If we cannot see real emotions and not predictable canned answers, I’d rather see an extra contestant…

1. There are new people who tune in all the time, so they are making sure that even if it is your first time watching, you know what everyone else is talking about, and

2. It’s a reality show, not a talent contest in my opinion. It makes for what they THINK is good TV and not necessarily for who is best. But, it can be a huge stepping stone to their first big break in show business although nothing like how American Idol is because there is a specific talent there, not this mixed bag of cheer that for most of them has no specific place in show business. There are no more Ed Sullivan shows so where do the dance acts (with 20 people in them) go from there?

I know that this stuff frustrates Piers. How many times has he said you have to vote for the talent and not the stories or the tears.

By the way, I caught the last 7 minutes of Howie Mandell on the Ellen Show. OMG, Heaven Help Us. I hope he doesn’t act like such a loon on the show or I’m going to throw up. He was ridiculous. Just ridiculous. It’s ok for stand up comedy, but PLEASE don’t bring that idiocy to the judging panel. I sincerely hope he doesn’t.

I don’t see why they consider letting us hear the same thing over and over and over … to the point that we can recite it by heart as “entertaining”. We are all intelligent people, we got it the first time around, we’d much rather see more talent and less repetition of same old stories. So many people say – I wish we’d seen more talent; hardly anybody says – I’d love to hear the same background story again, I don’t think I got it the first time. Yet, for some reason they still feel they need to tell it again.

Not to mention that they are subtly telling us whom they want us to vote for by showing some stories over and over and glossing over others. Some people get lots of airtime from the start while others we see for the first time at the semifinals. Then they also omit the professional/educational background of some contestants but tell us about that background of other contestants. So people think some people are untrained amateurs when they have degrees and others are ‘professionals’ when in fact both have exactly the same or similar background. I personally don’t have a problem with people having education/prior experience – they all want to be professionals, they all want us to eventually pay to watch them, so at some point “oh, he is just an amateur” excuse wears off, but why hide it?

The other point about people being talented, but not having a good story is a great one. Talent isn’t enough to be on the show. I think AGT has often gone too far in trying to tell a story every time. They should take from AI where a lot of people have stories, but sometimes the people are just talented and that’s fine.