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PureAGT Season 9: The “Golden Buzzer”, Boot Camp, and Other Changes???

So according to Hypable, there are quite a few changes that we’re going to be seeing this season on AGT – some of them seem like positives, others…not so much.  Let’s count them down, shall we?

Change #1: Auditions in front of the judges were only held in New York & L.A.

In previous seasons, we’ve gotten to see the judges travel across the country to various cities were auditions were held in order to see the talent onstage – last year, they went to New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Chicago, & New Orleans.  This year, initial auditions in front of the producers were held in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Houston, and my hometown – Indianapolis 🙂 But those who passed muster at the initial auditions had to fly to New York or L.A. in order to audition for the judges – and I’m just a tad bummed, not only because I would have loved to have seen the judges out & about in my hometown, but I thought the local flavor of some of the audition cities was what made those initial rounds so fun to watch.  We got to see all the mariachi performers in line in San Antonio, all the jazz in New Orleans, the Latin flavor of Miami, etc.  But according to Howie, the fact that the talent from all of those cities funneled into just two really made the live auditions more challenging, since the didn’t have the comfort zone of performing in their hometown.

Change #2: No “Vegas Week” this season – it has been replaced by “Boot Camp”, which was held in front of a live audience at Radio City Music Hall.

In lieu of holding “Vegas Week” in order to determine the Top 48 acts this year, AGT opted to hold a 3-day “Boot Camp” round of auditions in front of both the judges AND a live studio audience in NYC.  It was apparently taped last week.  Despite what the name implies (and the event of the same name from the X-Factor), it sounds basically the same as Vegas Week – just not in Vegas, and with the addition of a live studio audience.  While I rather enjoyed seeing the contestants hanging out in Vegas and in some of my favorite hotels, I guess I don’t particularly mind this new Boot Camp switch-up – I think the addition of a live studio audience may actually influence the judges a bit more to pick acts with more broad-spectrum appeal, as opposed to acts that only they themselves might find appealing.  I kind of wonder if an act like Milton Patton (who seemed wildly popular with viewers last season, but was eliminated in an instant decision in Vegas last year) may have fared better in the Boot Camp format, and if a more polarizing act like Aaralyn & Izzy may not have advanced to the next round if done in front of an audience.

Change #3: There’s something called the “Golden Buzzer”.

Apparently, it’s a one-time “judges’ save” – another buzzer situated on the judges’ table between Heidi & Mel B. that any of the judges can hit in order to save an act that’s about to get eliminated due to the other 3 judges saying “no”.  The catch? It can only be used once per season, per judge, so it encourages the judges to use it only when they feel strongly about an act.  I think as the judge that’s the dissenting opinion most often (and the one that is most likely to like stranger acts that the other 3 judges don’t “get”), Howie is the one that will most likely benefit from this new buzzer – and he allegedly already used it during the initial audition rounds.  I’m a little unclear on when it can be used, though – if it’s only when the other 3 judges say “no”, does that mean it can only be used during the initial auditions, Boot Camp week, or if the act lands in the judges’ choice slots during the live shows? Or can it be used to save an act that would have gotten eliminated regardless, based on the viewers’ votes? Does it expire after a certain round, like the judges’ save on American Idol? And most importantly – will it preclude the judges getting a “wild card” pick at some point? Since the wild card was basically a judges’ save (with a slightly different format), it almost seems redundant to tell them “Ok, you get this golden buzzer in order to save an act that’s about to get eliminated…but you also get a wild card pick later in the season, where you can bring back any eliminated act!” So I guess I’m curious how this whole thing works.

So what do you think of the changes this season? Are they an improvement…or a downgrade? Don’t forget to set your DVR’s to record the premiere, which is only 4 days away!!! 😎

May 23, 2014 I Written By

Ultrasound specialist by day, entertainment blogger by night - with some amateur dancer, hair & makeup enthusiast, crazy cat lady, recreational chef, and Donnie Wahlberg/Norman Reedus fangirl peppered in to make things interesting ;-) Check out some of my other work over at puredwts.com!

PureAGT Season 8, Semifinal #2 – SPOILERS!!! Who Made it Through to the Next Round?

Anyone else totally OVER the judges’ choice and how they continually cop out on actually making a choice? I think they’ve only not done the dreaded 2-2 split twice this season – once for Chicago Boyz in quarterfinal #3, and once for Catapult in last week’s semifinal.  Why even have a judges’ choice when they’re just gonna throw it right back to America???
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September 4, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound specialist by day, entertainment blogger by night - with some amateur dancer, hair & makeup enthusiast, crazy cat lady, recreational chef, and Donnie Wahlberg/Norman Reedus fangirl peppered in to make things interesting ;-) Check out some of my other work over at puredwts.com!

PureAGT Season 8 – Roster for 2nd Semifinal Airing September 3

Here’s the semifinalists performing next week:

Kenichi Ebina
Jimmy Rose
Marty Brown
Chicago Boyz
D’Angelo & Amanda
John Wing
Timber Brown
Branden James
American Military Spouses Choir
Anna Christine
Kristef Brothers*
Leon Etienne & Romy Low (Howard’s wild card pick)

*pending healing of the injury Kris sustained while rehearsing for this week’s semifinal.

The one major threat I see to Forte’s apparent monopoly on the win this season? Kenichi Ebina. If he can pull off something as cool as what he did in the quarterfinals, I think he’s gonna be a force to be reckoned with.  Other standouts? I’m guessing Jimmy Rose, Timber Brown, D’Angelo & Amanda, and I’m tentatively going to say the Chicago Boyz & Kristef Brothers, who both have injuries to contend with (one of the Chicago Boyz broke his leg in the 3rd quarterfinal, and obviously Kris from Kristef is still recovering from the injury he sustained this week).  As I said in my spoilers post, I think Leon & Romy don’t stand a chance; I also keep forgetting that Anna Christine is even in this competition, and think Marty Brown’s weaknesses are really going to show next to Jimmy Rose, much the same way that Jonathan Allen’s did next to Forte.  And speaking of opera – so help me god, Branden James better NOT make the top 12…most overrated act this season, IMO.

So who do you guys think will be the ones to watch next week? And what do you think of Howard’s wild card pick?

August 28, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound specialist by day, entertainment blogger by night - with some amateur dancer, hair & makeup enthusiast, crazy cat lady, recreational chef, and Donnie Wahlberg/Norman Reedus fangirl peppered in to make things interesting ;-) Check out some of my other work over at puredwts.com!

PureAGT Season 8, Semifinal #1 – SPOILERS!!! Who Made it Through to the Next Round?

Oh em gee, One Direction – except not really, cause my heart will always belong to the boy bands of my youth: the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, 98 Degrees, and NKOTB 😀 Don’t know Cassadee Pope, so I didn’t even listen – instead, I played with my cousin’s Siamese cat, Hampton.  Vacation rocks 😎
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I Written By

Ultrasound specialist by day, entertainment blogger by night - with some amateur dancer, hair & makeup enthusiast, crazy cat lady, recreational chef, and Donnie Wahlberg/Norman Reedus fangirl peppered in to make things interesting ;-) Check out some of my other work over at puredwts.com!

PureAGT Season 8: The Argument for Tone the Chiefrocca

I’ve made no secret of it that Tone is my favorite act of the season – I think “B-O-O-T-Y” is ridiculously catchy, I am endlessly entertained by Tone & Coley-Cole’s antics onstage, and overall, I think their concept is genius: they only aspire to be a one-hit wonder…nothing more.

I’ve certainly seen my fair share of ridicule for being such a fan – there’s definitely some out that that think their act is “dumb”, “not entertaining/worthy of a Vegas show”, “repetitive”, and just “ridiculous”. I understand that Tone isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – some of you would much rather prefer another opera act, or another country singer, or something a little more high-brow.  But before everyone gets uber-upset about him being brought back as a wild card act…why not let me try to make a case for why I think it’s good he got brought back? I promise not to take too much of your time, and at the end of it, you may feel a little bit better about seeing him again.  So without further ado, my top 3 reasons why I think Tone coming back is a good thing:

1.) He’s a cannon-fodder act.

Tone’s not gonna make it through the semifinals – of that I’m sure.  He doesn’t stand a chance against the likes of Collins, Forte, the Kristef Brothers, or Taylor.  But the reality of AGT is that every week, 8 acts must go home in order for 4 to advance…and sometimes, it helps to build in a few acts that you know won’t stand a chance, and that you won’t feel bad about sending home in order to protect your favorites.  Tone is the perfect cannon-fodder act: he’s already been sent home once, he doesn’t take himself very seriously, he’s not going to be crushed if he gets eliminated a second time, and he’s just thankful for the chance to perform “B-O-O-T-Y” one more time.  Sure, you can argue that “so-and-so deserved a second chance more than Tone!”, but let’s think realistically here: most, if  not all, of the acts brought back as wild cards are probably not going to make it through to the top 10.  I don’t see them displacing heavy-hitters like Forte, Collins, Catapult, Jimmy, etc.  The wild card pick is basically just a stay of execution for them – just a chance to perform one more time, with the chances of them actually making it through being really, really slim.  Sure, Mel could have picked someone like Chloe Channell, and we could have listened to her warble her way through another lackluster country song, only to get eliminated AGAIN and start crying; but how entertaining would that have been? Which brings me to my next point…

2.) He’s an entertaining space-filler.

Undoubtedly, there’s going to be talented acts that just kind of fizzle in the semifinals – hell, some of them even fizzled in the quarterfinals *cough*Marty*cough*.  And when too many acts in a row fizzle – you end up with situations like we had in quarterfinal #4, when many of us were so bored during the first hour that we contemplated changing the channel.  Yes, this is a show about talent – but it’s also still a tv show, and ratings are still important.  You don’t want your audience changing the channel mid-show because they’re not entertained.  Enter Tone – even if you don’t think he’s worthy of a Vegas show, you have to admit: the dude is an entertainer, and his quarterfinal performance brought the house down.  He has a bit of the “trainwreck appeal” that makes people want to watch, even if they don’t particularly like the songs he’s singing. He could be the perfect type of act to wake up a lackluster show, without detracting too much from the truly talented acts.  So maybe instead of thinking of Tone as “taking the place of a more talented act” – think of him as a special musical guest, put somewhere in the middle of the show to liven things up 😉

3.) AGT could benefit from the success of “B-O-O-T-Y’.

Someone on Twitter asked me the other day why “B-O-O-T-Y” wasn’t on the radio already.  And it brought up an interesting thought to me – does AGT perhaps have a vested interest in the commercial success of “B-O-O-T-Y”? Let me explain.  Shows like American Idol, The Voice, and The X-Factor are notorious for keeping their talent under contractual lock and key for a prolonged period of time after the show – even the singers who only made it through the early rounds have ironclad contracts imposed upon them that can prohibit them from “doing anything to advance their career” for up to a YEAR after the show airs, or that may reward “first dibs” on any record deals to studios associated with those shows, or may even go so far as to spell out terms whereby the show itself could potentially collect royalties from any performances the contestants do within a specified period of time.  It’s predatory contracts like these that have made me grow to hate Simon Cowell as a human being – they’re basically provisions that allow him to squeeze every last dime of profit out of a contestant before kicking them to the curb.  And since Simon’s one of the creators of AGT – what’s to say there aren’t contractual obligations similar to these that are imposed upon AGT contestants? The powers that be may very well see Tone as a potential cash cow – there may already be a record deal in the works to get “B-O-O-T-Y” on the radio, in which case, it’s going to benefit the show to get Tone as much exposure as possible…up to and including bringing him back as a wildcard act.

So there’s my arguments in support of Tone’s return…take ’em or leave ’em.  Just wanted to get it off my chest 🙂

UPDATE: Forgot to add this hilarious radio interview that Tone & Cole did a few weeks ago – they of course had me laughing, but it was interesting to hear the back story of “B-O-O-T-Y” and hear them admit that they weren’t expecting to actually make it as far as they had on AGT.  Tone also has “mad love” for Angela Hoover 🙂 :

August 23, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound specialist by day, entertainment blogger by night - with some amateur dancer, hair & makeup enthusiast, crazy cat lady, recreational chef, and Donnie Wahlberg/Norman Reedus fangirl peppered in to make things interesting ;-) Check out some of my other work over at puredwts.com!

PureAGT Season 8 – POLL: Who Will Howard & Howie Pick for Their Wild Card?

So we know Heidi & Mel’s wildcard picks (Duo Resonance & Tone the Chiefrocca), and will be seeing them perform next week.  But the question on everyone’s lips seems to be “Who will Howard & Howie pick as their wild card?”

I think it’s worth noting that both Mel & Heidi’s picks were acts that lost in the judges’ choice of their respective rounds – therefore, I think there’s a good chance that Howard & Howie’s picks might also be acts that lost the judges’ choice.  However, I think there’s also a few acts that the judges were hoping would make it further and didn’t – so their picks may be acts that didn’t even make it as far as the judges’ choice.  Hell, they could feasibly even pick acts that didn’t make it past Vegas…and Howie in particular is pretty unpredictable, so he very well may chose something completely out of left field.

I’ve picked a handful of acts that I think stand the best chance of getting picked for the wildcard, as well as allowing write-ins.  Which do you think will get picked? Vote for the three you think are the most likely.

Personally, I would be surprised if Howard picked any act other than the American Hit Men – he had be gunning hard to get a “great rock band” in the finals, and I think he really wanted the Hit Men to be that band.  If he doesn’t pick them, for whatever reason (maybe too many music acts?), I could see him maybe picking Alexanderia…he seemed to think she should have made it further than she did, plus we don’t really have any danger acts in the semifinals.  Howie is a bit more unpredictable – I could see him doing something totally dumb and bringing back Aaralyn & Izzy (ugh), just to be weird; but then again, I think he could possibly bring back Aerial Ice or Alex Magala, to try and get some more unique acts into the finals, since he seems to be the judge that is the most vocal about there being too many singers in the competition this year.

So how did you guys vote? And who do you hope to see winning these wild card spots?

August 22, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound specialist by day, entertainment blogger by night - with some amateur dancer, hair & makeup enthusiast, crazy cat lady, recreational chef, and Donnie Wahlberg/Norman Reedus fangirl peppered in to make things interesting ;-) Check out some of my other work over at puredwts.com!

PureAGT Season 8, Live Show #5 – SPOILERS!!! Who Made it Through to the Next Round?

An interesting results show, to say the least – and I’m not just referring to Train’s odd duet with Ashley Monroe, or the comedic stylings of last season’s runner-up, Tom Cotter.  Someone unexpected made it through to the semifinals, they (of course) pitted the Castro siblings against one another, and it was revealed that each judge gets ONE wild card pick, and two of those acts will be seen in each semifinal round. Read more..

August 21, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound specialist by day, entertainment blogger by night - with some amateur dancer, hair & makeup enthusiast, crazy cat lady, recreational chef, and Donnie Wahlberg/Norman Reedus fangirl peppered in to make things interesting ;-) Check out some of my other work over at puredwts.com!