America's Got Talent 2011 Season 6

Ew...now I have to shower again.

I saw a thread about a month ago but the search came up empty.

A good start to the season.

Team iLluminate was awesome! The first thought that came to mind - Fighting Gravity.

No surprise the 3 little kids made it, they always do.

The one magician was good but he lacked stage presence.

As always, the real test comes when they have to perform multiple times.

Threads merged.

I caught up with this on my DVR and have to say it was awful.

Piers Morgan is a bitter and depressed grump. Nick Cannon is like an attention-seeking adult child. Most of the acts are stuff that has appeared many times before...box-trick magicians, bicycle stunts, black light dancers, etc.

This series was "one and done" for me. Deleted off the record list after just one episode.

Ahhh Summer TV. I gave So You Think You Can Dance another go and still found it to be a joke. On the urging of my sister and her kids I tried this and found myself laughing out loud quite a bit, despite not being a fan of any of the judges. My personal favorite act was the parrot, although I have no idea what she can do for an encore in Vegas. I also gave Platinum Hit a chance and I'm not sure how I feel about that one. It felt really cold, and Kara proved once again why she should stick to writing songs for other people and not do TV. She's got the personality of a sponge, but Jewel is the host of the show and she's even more robotic than Kara. It was fun watching the contestants come up with original hooks and songs though.

This is the best show to play a game I invented with my teenage daughter called: "Do they suck?!" You just try to guess based upon the intro. I did this with a house full of people once and it was a big hit.

We recently bought a DVD set with all four Ed Sullivan shows with the Beatles. The shows are complete, with commercials and all. They're just jaw dropping! The amount of acts Ed presented during each show; just boom-boom-boom. Total variety. And almost all of them you would never see now, or even be the slightest bit successful. There are no venues.

America's Got Talent is the closest. Pretty entertaining.

The Ed Sullivan Show was a phenomena that lasted from 1948 until 1971. In all those years he had many, many, superstars as well as one hit wonders. I looked forward to every Sunday at 8PM on CBS for all of those shows.

Much closer to the current crop of reality contests was the one that came right before Ed Sullivan (7:00 pm Sunday). That was The Original Amateur Hour, hosted (on TV; it started on the radio) by Ted Mack. Here is a list of some who came through that show on their way to stardom.

Frank Sinatra, Gladys Knight, Nick Carter, Pat Boone, Connie Francis, Jim Stafford, Ann-Margret, Robert Klein, Raul Julia, Maria Callas, Beverly Sills, Joey Dee And The Starlighters, The Primettes, with Diana Ross, and Penny Marshall.

Each week was a separate contest. The winner was determined by calls and postcards.

Frank Sinatra appeared on the radio version of Ted Mack but never on the TV version....

I've been watching AGT since the beginning, and I don't think I've ever seen a show as bad as last night. Not so much because of the acts, we don't often get to see some of the acts in their entirety until later shows, just snippets, but because of the judges and Nick's shenanigans. That show was more about them and their scripted antics than the acts. Things will settle down the further along we go, but those things are just too phony. I'd prefer to see more of the shortened acts than that stuff. Once in awhile its okay, but last night was just too much. YMMV.

Enjoying this season so far. I just soo hope another singer doesn't win the competition again. I would rather see something different (i.e. that group with the light show was amazing).

Agreed. It's hard to believe that they're unable to find enough acts to fill an hour-long show that are more entertaining (on either a good or bad level), that they're reduced to what look like canned skits involving wacky Howie and stuffy Piers.

The show has also become too predictable, or at least the selection process has.

We always seem to get:

• The cute little kids (often rappers), that have zero chance of making it to Vegas, but are put through anyway
• The foreigner that has an odd accent, performing some poor act that Howie finds to be amusingly absurd
• The old person, again cute, but with zero chance of making it in Vegas
• The group with a talented front singer, who Piers urges to break off and go it alone (not a chance, since team is more important than an individual)
• The performer dealing with an illness, that has overcome great odds just to be on stage (have we seen this one this season yet?)
• The group of economically-disadvantaged singers/dancers, that have given it all they've got for one shot at the big-time (usually at least a few of these)
• The opera singer who doesn't look like an opera singer
• The performer that has absolutely no talent, but seems to make it through anyway

What else have I missed?

Scott

Why does America's Got Talent allow non-Americans to enter? I don't get it.

I thought the blond dreadlock girl had a great voice. I just hope she doesn't cry every time.

How about the shy, unpopular teenager who overcomes a lack of social graces with dancing or singing.

This show has turned out to be infinitely more fun to watch than SYTYCD. And I dont even like any of the judges, but somehow it still works.

We can cover the majority of acts with this one category: People who make an a$$ of themselves.

But I still enjoy the show.

"Fun" is the operative word. Even the bad acts are fun to watch. I love it when Nick comes out to help the poor guy or gal that got three quick X's. I just wish that Piers wouldn't take himself so seriously during the tryouts. He is the judging buzz kill.

Piers seems to be generally "more tolerant" this season .....
(With the exception of the last show where he was stuck in airports for 18 hrs & got there late (in a bad mood))....

He's hasn't been buzzing as many acts that aren't being buzzed by the others, & he has less critisizims ...
For example, last year Piers had a common type of critisizim for many acts, even those popular w/the audience & other judges ...which was to the effect of " You were fine, but I just don't see your act being able to sell out an hour show in Vegas or winning the ultimate prize, so I vote no for that reason"
There's already been a bunch of otherwise "good" acts these past few shows that I was sure Piers was going to say something like that, & get "boo - ed" by the audience, but it's not happening...

I have never seen Piers before except for clips here and there, so I can't tell if its all an act or if he really does indeed have that short of a fuse. I don't understand how you can do a show like this and not be having the time of your life like Howie appears to be.

There are to many cut away shots of Nick Cannon during the performances.

It's the same thing they do on the UK version. I actually don't mind it.