The Top 48: Round 4: a recap and tonight's forecast

Everyone has an opinion, it would seem, about the direction in which America’s Got Talent is headed. During week three, Piers Morgan made his contempt for Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff and their decision to pass Tony Hoard & Rory into the Top 20 perfectly known. Last night, however, it was America who was reprimanded, this time indirectly by Nick Cannon for “shocking us all” with their decision to pass Jeffrey Ou into the Top 20.

The drama continued, along with many more acts that may offer the judges and America a reason to potentially feel ashamed about. There should have been very few surprises during this fourth and final week of first-round performances, but there actually were quite a few, including one wild card act that may very well be in a position to prove the judges wrong by advancing. The twelve acts to perform tonight were:

1) Ishaara (no Xs)

While the judges were thoroughly impressed by Ishaara’s foreign flare, America should have felt hard-pressed to stay awake until the end of this performance.

It is not an understatement to say that, of all the dance acts included in this season of AGT, Ishaara may very well be the least deserving of them all. Their choreography was imperfect, and with such bland and unimpressive dancing, the imperfection was readily apparent.

The corny skit and deliberately bad “voice dubbing” they used to accompany their dancing did not help at all. Even their one signature move: the assisted cartwheel, was nowhere to be seen, nor had it been replaced with anything else.

Ishaara appears to be an act that believes they can win based on their foreign flare alone. Tomorrow, they should expect to be told otherwise.

2) Barbara Padilla (no Xs)

What more can be said about Barbara Padilla? From the very moment she opened her mouth at the open call, she was on everyone’s short list, not just to make it into the Top 40, but to potentially win it all.

Last night, she reminded everyone why.

That is not to say that her performance was flawless. Her song choice was far from perfect as it began with a mouthful of lyrics that prohibited Padilla to perform to her fullest from the beginning. She finished strong, however, and received the first ever standing ovation from all three judges.

Fans of Padilla should have been cautious and voted for her in force, however. Padilla performed last night in the dreaded #2 spot, the same spot that somehow left another top contender, Thia Megia, at the mercy of the judges.

3) Pam Martin’s Top Dogs (no Xs)

The first thing you might have noticed is that the name of the act has been changed. Pam Martin revealed that she actually has six dogs and decided to perform with another one named Spy.

Not that we would have known. The act was very much the same thing as at the open call. Every single trick performed by Spy had been performed by Viva during the open call, the only exception being the grand finale, which was basically a repeat of a similar trick with added flare.

Martin has at least achieved a milestone of sorts. She is the first dog act to not absolutely screw up and fall flat during the first round, an act that even her rival confirmed into the Top 20, Tony Hoard & Rory, has no claim to.

Hoard & Rory, however, had the luxury of piss-poor competition to allow them to qualify for the judges’ vote. Martin was not so fortunate.

4) The African High Flyers (X from Morgan)

The African High Flyers performed spectacular feats of strength and agility with seemingly effortless execution and transition. They were everything America should have expected from the High Flyers. . .

And for good reason: their live performance was very similar to their open call performance. Morgan hit his X and specifically cited this as his reason: their lack of addition to the act that the judges personally were already familiar with.

This leaves the High Flyers in a tough spot. The Flyers delivered an exciting and very risky performance that should put even Acrodunk to shame, but if the judges have convinced America that they may not be able to offer anything more in the Top 20, they may be hesitant to vote them through in place of a more deserving act.

5) Mia Boostrom (no Xs)

Mia Boostrom chose a very big song for such an early performance, and rightfully so. The competition among the singers was fierce last night, and with Boostrom’s forecasted rival, BRI, having failed to qualify for even the judges’ vote the week before, she had every right to feel nervous about her own chances in the fourth and final round.

Boostrom’s nerves did show in the beginning, but this was not quite as troubling as her decision to take her hands off of the piano, which did not seem to affect the quality of the music itself and may have left the audience at home wondering what it was there for to begin with. She finished strong, however, and while Morgan expressed skepticism as to whether or not she could perform at the same level as Kevin Skinner, Lawrence Beamen and Barbara Padilla, the judges commended her for her dedication and bravery.

6) Erik & Rickie (no Xs)

When I assembled my original forecast in the rough draft of this article mere minutes after the voting lines were opened, I realized that my list was missing enough names to forecast four acts as passed, six as rejected and two as the judges’ choices. After pouring over my notes several times, I finally found the act that was missing: Erik & Rickie.

I mention that because I think it perfectly illustrates the nature of the act overall: pointless and forgettable.

Erik & Rickie will throw a wrench into the works for any act that had planned to get by on spoiler votes because there are millions of parents out there who can only dream of their children getting along just as well as Erik & Rickie can, but the act itself is completely out of place. If the judges thought they could mooch off of the success of Dancing With the Stars by including these two, they were dead wrong.

7) Coney Island Chris Allison (XXXed out)

He lit his butt on fire. Need I say more?

Everything Allison could have done wrong, he did wrong. He stretched out the act by making a mockery of his safety, spilling gasoline and his matches, and had two Xs lit up on him before he even began his first trick: transferring a flame from one torch to another by setting his tongue on fire.

He then took what was supposed to be a bottle of alcohol but which he claimed to be lighter fluid. . . Downed the whole thing and took out a second bottle, with which he spit fire, then lit his pants on fire and was finally Xed by the Hoff before his assistants put him out.

His performance was so bad that Sharon Osbourne actually questioned how it was that he made it into the Top 40 to begin with. The answer, of course, is because the judges are as Hoffing incompetent as they come.

8) Anthony & Matt (X from Morgan)

The problem with this act’s performance was simple: while Matt is a great guitarist and Anthony is a great dancer, neither was apparent during their performance. Matt’s guitar and Anthony’s taps were drowned out by their accompanying track, leaving only Matt’s less-than-stellar vocals to speak for the performance itself.

Morgan only commented on Matt’s vocals as his reason for buzzing the act, but the truth is that the performance bombed because it was poorly conceived. Osbourne commented that there was something missing that she just couldn’t quite put her finger on. That “something missing” was volume.

9) The Lollipop Girls (no Xs)

The judges are owed an apology. While they have been thoroughly incompetent this season, they did at least seem to recognize that America would never vote for a striptease act in this competition.

Simon Cowell, however, needs to be struck upside the head with this truth a few times before the next season. The judges need to be given this same treatment as well, as when the Lollipop Girls performed, they apparently forgot all the lessons they had learned.

The Lollipop Girls were not quite the train wreck their predecessors had been, but they also failed to justify their presence in the Top 48 by offering nothing new or original. Ultimately, America will look back on this season and only remember the Lollipop Girls for two things: David comparing them to lollipops because “they take a licking and keep on ticking” (no, that’s a watch you a imbecile), and that obnoxious twit in the audience that kept whistling at the top of his lungs in close proximity to one of the judges’ microphones.

10) Drew Stevyns (no Xs)

Drew who? Exactly. Stevyns was not even mentioned during the open calls nor during the Vegas Verdict, one of many acts never even confirmed to have auditioned at all before being cut.

This combined with his unquestionably British accent may give America reason to doubt Cowell’s motivations in bringing him back into the Top 48, but he still made an admirable first impression with his live performance. Morgan specifically commented that, while he once again doubted if the quality of his voice was up to standard, he could feel the hunger in his voice and called it, not only Stevyn’s best performance, but the best that Morgan felt he could possibly have given.

Of all the wild card acts brought back through Simon Cowell’s influence, Stevyns may be in the best position to actually advance. Of course, given the quality of the wild cards overall, this is not saying much.

11) Recycled Percussion (no Xs)

For a group called Recycled Percussion, the group started off without a whole lot of percussion. You couldn’t rightly tell if the drumming was the work of the performers themselves or if it was a part of their accompanying track.

Then the stage shifted forward so that the two drummers were practically standing vertical, and the act that at first appeared to be a future disaster transformed into the performance of the night.

Recycled Percussion’s innovation shined true last night. Specifically, they used a power drill against a guitar, which gave off a remarkably professional sounding shred. Then they finished off the performance with grinders against a metal barrel to substitute the guitar overall, all while the two vertical performers continued to hammer away at their drums.

In one performance, a group that had previously been written off as cannon fodder transformed into a top contender. Morgan asked if trash could win a million dollars, and the answer is yes.

12) The EriAm Sisters (no Xs)

Of all the groups that performed last night, the EriAm Sisters are the only one that arguably could have afforded to screw up a little. And they did – their performance was far from perfect. Their harmonies are still lacking, but they have a very strong lead vocalist. The sisters seem to be aware of this, as the three of them performed their solo pieces in the order from least talented to most. If they are aware of this, the solos should be handled exclusively by that one most talented singer so the other two can work on perfecting their harmonies.

Mind you that this is all advice to consider for the future. The sisters are still unquestionably talented and can expect to be competing side by side the Voices of Glory soon enough.

Once again the middle ground between the definite passes and the definite eliminations finds itself hovering right between an automatic pass and a fail. Three acts listed as passed and five acts listed as failed have been forecasted with confidence. In the middle are two performers that are unquestionably talented but about whom America may have doubts. Mia Boostrom delivered a solid performance, but with two other strong female vocal groups to contend with and her rival eliminated without half a thought, the future does not look entirely bright for her. Drew Stevyns made a strong first impression, but without any familiarity and reason to be skeptical about his inclusion, he may fall short of expectations as well. Furthermore, with Boostrom being a repeat audition and Stevyns a wild card originally rejected by the judges, both of them appeal to the same group of spoiler voters: the AGT discontent.

Also joining them on the fence are the African High Flyers, who delivered a stunning performance but were faulted by Piers Morgan, also giving America reason to have doubts.

Finally, there is Pam Martin’s Top Dogs, a thoroughly pointless performance that really should be rejected without a thought, but the same had been said two weeks ago of Tony Hoard & Rory, whose inclusion in the Top 20 left America seething. Those same idiot pet lovers that let Hoard through should also be expected to vote for Martin as well. As was mentioned earlier, however, Hoard had the benefit of poor competition, and since the outrage over the first dog act’s inclusion in the Top 20 has not yet subsided, nobody but the pet-fanatical should be expected to vote for the other.

With this taken into account, here is tonight’s forecast overall:

Passed: