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What is Simon Cowell thinking? Here’s some stories floating around the internet that Howie Mandel will be replacing The Hoff as a judge on America’s Got Talent. This comes right after David Hasselhoff leaves America’s Got Talent. Check out the announcement by eOnline:

Howie Mandel just scored a new deal…with America’s Got Talent.

The 54-year-old former Deal or No Deal host will sit at the judges table with Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne for the show’s fifth season, E! News has confirmed.

I guess there’s the potential that they could be wrong. In fact, I kind of hope they are wrong. Ok, Howie might be pretty funny at the judges table. I can give him a chance, but I just don’t see how he qualifies to judge these types of acts. Plus, it will be really interesting to see how he interacts with Sharon and Piers. I guess I can see Howie as the host of the show, but not sure about him as a judge.

Either way, I don’t expect one judge to make a difference in the ratings for America’s Got Talent 2010 anyway. People watch for the talent more than the judges I think.

In some of the best news I’ve gotten tonight, I’m happy to say that David Hasselhoff will no longer be a judge on America’s Got Talent. I’m sure there could be worse, but David Hasselhoff just felt far too fake for me on the show. He seemed to offer little insight as a judge. Here’s the news as it was reported by E! online:

After four seasons on America’s Got Talent, David Hasselhoff is leaving the judges’ table, his rep confirms to E! News. “I am proud that I was part of making America’s Got Talent, the No. 1 rated show for the past four summers,” Hasselhoff said in a statement.

“It’s been a rewarding experience and now I’m thrilled to be able to follow my dream to do my own TV show, which will be announced very shortly.”

I know that MANY people won’t share my happiness. Many people loved having the Hoff as a judge on America’s Got Talent. To those people I offer my condolences. However, I’ll be VERY happy to see a freshness on the judging panel of America’s Got Talent. It had really grown quite stale this past season. Far too predictable and not very entertaining.

I’d still LOVE to have Simon Cowell join as a judge. He’s absolutely BRILLIANT as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent. However, I’m quite sure that Simon can’t be a judge on America’s Got Talent because of his contract as a judge on American Idol. I’m not sure who else is available.

I’d also love to have the blonde girl from Britain’s Got Talent replace Sharon on the judges panel as well. I’m not sure her name, but she was quite good. Yes, I guess you can say I’m a big fan of the way the judges worked on Britain’s Got Talent.

Best of luck to the Hoff and we’ll be watching to see what his next TV show will be.

Poor David Hasselhoff has done it again. If the British tabloids are to be believed, he got rip roaring drunk at Simon Cowell’s 50th birthday bash and continued on this junket for 2 more days until his assistant called for a doctor. It was said the assistant was afraid David would die from alcohol poisoning.

David was allegedly so drunk, he took a swing at his assistant, missed and hit the doctor. The article went on to say he had been so loaded that he wet the bed and ruined 2 mattresses. The hotel got him to a hospital and he was in rehab for 2 days.

David, David, oh David. He is very well liked by most of the AGT audiences and contestants, including myself, but I just wish he’d wake up and come to his senses before he kills himself. I can’t help but wonder what would happen to him if he did something to bad enough to get fired from judging AGT.

Since he clearly can’t handle his drinking, he should have given this party a miss. Seriously. Sometimes on the show the look in his eyes reminds me of what Paula looked like on American Idol from time to time. Does anyone out there think David will ever get into rehab and stay sober?

It’s that time again for all those interested in auditioning for America’s Got Talent. I’m personally very interested in having more people audition for America’s Got Talent, because the last season of America’s Got Talent was a little weak in my book. Sure there were a couple acts that were awesome, but over all it was just ho hum. Let’s hope that Season 5 of America’s Got Talent is better than last season.

Here’s the casting call video for America’s Got Talent 2010. This is the link to the official America’s Got Talent website. Let me know if you’re auditioning so we can hear about your experience.

Disclaimer: This is just an America’s Got Talent fan site. Please visit the official AGT website for official answers.

One of my readers sent me the following update about Faryl Smith, winner of Britain’s Got Talent.

Faryl has been very busy this year, she has sung with Katherine Jenkins at a number of venues and on TV. She has duetted with Carreras at the Hamptont Court Palace Festival. She was the guest star at the opening gala at this year’s Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. She won first prize there at the age of ten.

She has sung in York Minster, The Royal Albert Hall. She entertained the 80,000 strong English and French supporters at Twickenham Rugby Football Ground. She sang the National anthem at the FA Cup Final in front of 92,000 football supporters. She opened the proceedings at the Classical Brits Awards Concert at the RAH. She has more concerts lined up before Christmas. She will be in a joint concert with Jonathan Ansell later this month. Then she’s off up north to sing at a charity concert in aid of muscular dystrophy sufferers in the beautiful settings of Durham Cathedral And a very big occasion in November. The National Service of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. An occasion always attended by all of the Royal Family. To be invited to sing there is a huge honour.

Through all of this she has kept going to school and has just finished her second album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It is to be released in the UK on 30 November. There is no track list yet but there is information about it on her UK website. There is also a snippet of one of the tracks on it ” Somwhere Far Away”. The album is called “Wonderland”. If you visit her website mute the video and click listen. Also there are a lot of new photographs of Faryl and others. Click the gallery tab at the top left of the page. Not the one below the picture lower down the page.

Nice to see that Faryl Smith is doing so well.

I’d been thinking this for a while, but the voting on my poll for the America’s Got Talent Winner just confirmed what I was already thinking and just didn’t want to admit publicly. I think I can safely say that the winner of America’s Got Talent season 4 will be either Barbara Padilla or Kevin Skinner. Everyone else has either fallen off the map (Lawrence Beaman), not had enough exposure (Drew Stevyns), or they just don’t have the wide ranging popularity of these two.

Don’t ask me why these 2 are so popular. They are both really really nice individuals, but they are far from the most talented people on America’s Got Talent. However, they’ve done what you have to do most on America’s Got Talent which is win the hearts of the American people.

Since I’m in the predicting mood, I’ll even go on to predict that Kevin Skinner is going to win America’s Got Talent 2009. Yes, it stings for me to say that since he’s a pretty bad singer. Yes, I couldn’t even bring myself to type that he was a pretty good singer. I had to stick with pretty bad. I think people just love Kevin Skinner’s chicken catcher story. I know I laughed really hard the first time I heard it. I like many Americans also love to see someone come from a chicken catcher to shocking America with a win. That’s the beauty of America and Kevin Skinner seems like a really good guy so at the end of the day I don’t have a problem with him winning. It’s just unfortunate that other talent couldn’t have won.

My question for all of you is assuming I’m right and Kevin Skinner wins, will you be coming to Las Vegas to see Kevin Skinner perform in America’s Got Talent Live? Should we all plan a day to go to the show and we could throw a Pure America’s Got Talent party somewhere in Las Vegas? I’m game if enough people are interested.

I just got the news about who will be the guest performers on the America’s Got Talent finale.

The season finale of NBC’s hit summer series “America’s Got Talent” Wednesday, September 16 (8-10 p.m. ET) will feature special performances from Latin pop star Shakira, British singing sensation Leona Lewis, country music superstars Rascal Flatts, the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil and many more special guests to be announced.

Previously announced finale performer, Susan Boyle will debut her new song “Wild Horses.” At the conclusion of the finale, the winning act to take home the million-dollar prize and a headlining show in Las Vegas will be announced.

Shakira will perform the world premiere of her mega-hit single, “She Wolf” from her forthcoming album of the same name, Leona Lewis will world premiere her song “Happy,” Rascal Flatts will be singing their latest hit “Summer Nights” and Cirque du Soleil will present a sneak peek performance from their brand new theatrical production “Banana Shpeel.”

Previously Announced Finale Performer Susan Boyle Will Sing Her New Song “Wild Horses”

Looks like a jam packed finale. While most of the America’s Got Talent finalist acts aren’t that exciting to me, this is a pretty broad ranging list of performers. Cirque du Soleil can either be really good or really bad. I’ve seen both on shows like this. Let’s hope it’s the really good stuff.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or in the comments, then you know I had a chance to be able to interview the finalists of America’s Got Talent. It was interesting, because originally they said it would be all the finalists, then they told me it would just be Grandma Lee. So, I just prepared for Grandma Lee. Then, when I was on the call Grandma Lee, Barbara Padilla, Kevin Skinner, Drew Stevyns (and they said some other name, but I couldn’t make it out) were on the call. Very cool experience.

Of course, the biggest problem was that they only gave me 7 minutes for the interview. Yes, that’s right. I had 7 minutes to interview 4-5 finalists for America’s Got Talent. Plus, I’d only planned questions for Grandma Lee. So, basically I was pretty flustered with what to do. You’ll hear below, but I rushed through Grandma Lee so I could talk to Barbara and Kevin. Listening back I acted like such a fan boi of Barbara and Kevin, but what can I say. I only had a few minutes to think what to say.

All in all, I think you’ll enjoy hearing from some of the America’s Got Talent finalists. I need to find a better way to embed an MP3 file (maybe I’ll make a video out of it), so until then here’s a link to download the AGT Finalists interview. Please excuse the bad recording at the very beginning. I promise it gets better. Also, I’ll put a quick summary of my thoughts from the interview.

Grandma Lee – It was interesting that she’d already toured the country as a comedian. They make it sound like she’d never done this before until America’s Got Talent. Another storyline ruined;-) Granted, if you’ve read this blog for any time, then this is nothing new.

Barbara Padilla – She was so gracious and kind and her accent was beautiful. I almost felt bad for discounting her previously. I guess maybe it’s just not me being a huge opera fan. It is interesting that I think she’s going to get a good part of the women vote, cancer vote, hispanic vote and opera junkie music fan vote. That’s a lot of good people backing her.

Kevin Skinner – I loved talking with Kevin. He really is what you see on TV. I loved when he talked about bonfires not happening in LA.

Drew Stevyns – I had to dig him for kicking out my EriAm sisters. Like he says, it’s entertainment. Sadly they cut the interview off as I started with Drew. He’s very personable though.

Overall Impressions – Interviewing these people was a lot of fun. Far too short, but still worthwhile. Talking to them like this really made them real to me. I guess when you see them on TV the show kind of makes them what they want them to be. Talking to them gave me a feeling that these are good people just trying to do what they do.

Let me know what you think of this interview. Just be kind. I was shooting from the hip and I don’t do this very often. Also, I’m really subconscious about hearing my own voice so take it easy on me.

Hey all new blogger Melissa here happy to be joining the pureamericasgottalent.com family. Though I guess I picked a bad night to join since most of the acts were mediocre at best. I can’t believe we have to put up with some of these acts while Tallan Noble Latz, and Ciana Pelekai got away. And for those who don’t know, the list of wild card acts being brought back has been announced and neither of these acts are being brought back. Neither is Kari Callin, though I always thought she shouted too much in her audition. Anyway here are my thoughts on the carnage of tonight’s show:

Fab Five- Normally I’m not a fan of this kind of thing but this was my favorite act of the night. I loved how they had a whole theme to go along with the song choice and the sychronisity was excellent. I didn’t really like the slower/hip hop parts in the middle but overall they did a great job.

Charles DeWayne- Another act I didn’t like in the first auditions who came back and surprised me in a good way. I don’t think I heard an off-pitch note throughout and the piano playing was solid as well. I thought the judges were a bit too harsh on his song choice since I prefer the ballad side of him.

And then things started to go downhill….

Carol Loo (the dancer formerly known as Carol Lugo)- What in the world was that? I really was impressed with her first audition but that cage sequence in the beginning was just awkward and she didn’t get a chance to show off her moves. When she finally got out of it she did odd looking hip hop and was totally out-danced by the girls behind her, despite what David said.

Tony Hoard and Rory- Another act that disappointed me. I counted three dropped frisbees, though I think the last two (including the one that went offstage) was Tony’s fault. The bright lights and huge audience likely didn’t help. Rory looked downright terrified at the end, literally shaking in Tony’s arms as they got their critiques.

Eleisha Miller- I was furious when she got through over the much more talent Ciana, so I was determined not to like this act. But much to my chagrin I actually enjoyed it. The singing wasn’t great but still much improved (minus the last note) but the highlight was really the dancing. She still has an annoying cuteness to her but that was only evident in the interviews, not in the performance itself.

Paradizo Dance- Another act where I don’t understand why they were put in the top 40 (there were quite a few of those tonight). In the beginning Zoe looked beautiful and graceful while Dave kind of lumbered around awkwardly on stage. The lifts were impressive but once they started them there was not much more dancing. Sure a tiny girl lifting a huge man is impressive but not something one can really make a show out of.

The Texas Tenors- I may be in the minority, but I really enjoyed these guys. I liked them somewhat in their audition but was surprised they were brought back. This time their harmonies were better and I loved the song choice. The beginning where they each sang solo was a bit rough but once they sang together it was quite enjoyable.

SQ Entertainment- They had lots of energy and the dancing was decent, but for some reason I didn’t enjoy this performance that much. Maybe like David said it was because I couldn’t follow the story. They remind me a bit of Diversity from Britain’s Got Talent (aka the group who beat Susan Boyle) but not as good. It was kind of forgettable for me.

Peter Peterkin- Agreed with the judges when they said that the jokes weren’t that funny (though I did chuckle a little) but the singing and Ray Charles impression was quite good. I knew as soon as Peter put the glasses on that he was going to do Jamie Fox as Ray Charles (since Jamie played Ray in the biopic) but for those who didn’t know Jamie was the star of that movie I could see where it could be confusing.

Alizma- I really enjoyed their violin playing (not their singing) in their audition, though the whole “three sisters constantly interrupting each other” act got old REALLY fast. So of course they come out and almost completely ditch the violins and try to sing their way to the top 20. It was so bad I didn’t even recognize the song until the chorus. And that last note by the middle sibling almost made my ears bleed through the TV.

Beale Street Flippers- Like the judges, I found myself bored during this routine. They nailed all the flips and everything but there’s really no way to sustain a Vegas show with an act like that. However I know they are really popular so there is hope for them in the results show.

Voices of Glory- One of many acts I thought was overhyped by the judges in the auditions, especially because the superior Eriam Sisters (one of my favorite acts of the season) got comparatively less love from the judges in the same episode. I liked them better this time around, though I the low portion in the beginning sounded a bit off and the girl’s voice seemed to crack or something at the end. I think I enjoyed the act more because I liked the song than because I liked the singing but considering the weak crop tonight they were definitely in the top group of acts.

So who would be my choices to go through? If I had my way we would see The Fab Five, Charles DeWayne, Eleisha Miller, The Texas Tenors, and Voices of Glory in the next round. The Fab Five and Charles DeWayne were the top two tonight, while Eleisha and Voices of Glory surpassed my admittedly low expectations. The Texas Tenors were also memorable for me in a night where the other acts were either forgettable or downright awful.

But unfortunately I think audiences will have a different view. The Fab Five, Charles, and Voices of Glory should all be locks to make it to the next round. Peter, Alizma, Tony and Rory, and Carol Loo are likely out of it. That leaves five acts for two spots. I honestly have no idea who else is going to make it through so I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb with my prediction. I think both wild card acts- The Beale Street Flippers and SQ Entertainment- will round out last night’s top five. The Flippers have a lot of fans who flooded the blogs wondering why they didn’t make the top 40, and SQ Entertainment were decent in a night where most acts were not. From reading some other blogs most people hated the Texas Tenors, and I think Eleisha will suffer from backlash from bitter Ciana fans, so while I enjoyed them both I don’t think they will go through.

What are your thoughts on last night’s show? Who do you think will and should make the top 20? Post your comments below.

Looks like Susan Boyle is set to be on the today show on July 22nd with Meredith Viera. The 22nd is a Wednesday and so I’m sure this is part of the publicity for America’s Got Talent that evening. Smart move by Simon Cowell. I wonder if she’s getting ready to perform on the America’s Got Talent stage as well[see full press release below for more details on this]. I’m not a huge fan, but I imagine it will help the America’s Got Talent ratings and that’s always a good thing in my book.

Check out a short part of Susan Boyle’s appearance on the Today Show where Susan says “I don’t want it to end.”

UPDATE: Here’s the full press release from NBC and America’s Got Talent about the Today show appearance and also details on Susan Boyle appearing on America’s Got Talent as well:

In a worldwide exclusive, NBC News’ Meredith Vieira will sit down with Susan Boyle in her first interview since she became an instant global phenomenon on “Britain’s Got Talent.”

The exclusive interview will air on “Today” with an extended interview as part of a special edition of “America’s Got Talent” Wednesday, July 22 (9-10 p.m. ET), which will also feature the last round of auditions before heading into the live quarterfinals.

Boyle shocked the world this year with her incredible voice on the British version of the hit NBC series “America’s Got Talent.” But in the wake of her second place finish and questions about her health[Susan was admitted to a mental health clinic], she has not spoken out about her experience to anyone until now. Boyle will talk to Vieira about her improbable journey to international fame, her voice, her health and what is next for her.”