Month: May 2012

America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 6

More lackluster acts greeted us in America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 5. Moving on to St. Louis.

Tom Bonham is a puppeteer. Nick’s sock puppets are better. Still, Howie is a fan.

Isaac Brown is a 6 year old singer and dancer. It doesn’t matter what his performance is, though, as his personality quickly wins over the audience.

Spencer Horsman is the world’s youngest escape artist. Tonight, rather than being tied up by Howard, he’s tied up by Nick. He has a minute and 20 seconds to escape from his straight jacket before being caught by a human sized rat trap.

Lin Doak is known as Little Ozzy. His terrible performance gets him booed by everybody in the audience other than Sharon.

The Cut Throat Freak Show & Eric Odditorium is a sideshow act with broken beer bottles. One of them jumps on the glass, then does a handstand on it. Then the other one lifts a chair using his eyelids. They finish with some sword swallowing.

Ron Christopher Porter, Jr. has a dream. He wants to do movie trailer voiceovers. Howard is confused how this is an act. He also cannot announce the acts that are going to be coming on stage because that’s what Nick does. Oh. So that’s what Nick does?

Curtis Cutts Bey will round out the night with stupid singing and bad dancing. Now we see what else Nick does. Prolong the worst acts and beat them into the ground.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 7, which airs Monday at 8/7c on NBC.

America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 5

A couple of good acts greeted us in America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 4, as we saw comedian Tom Cotter and aerial act Donovan & Rebecca. Tonight the auditions head to Tampa.

Inspire the Fire is a singing and dancing troupe that hopes to reach out to the youths in the streets. Their story’s a lot better than their performance, but they’re strong enough as singers and/or dancers that the crowd loves them.

NC Bikini Bombshells walk out on stage and immediately get a standing ovation. They should have just stood there and looked cute because their attempt to dance blows it.

All That is a clogging group. They grew up competing in clogging competitions. I’ll take their word that’s a real thing. Cool for what it is.

Michael Griffin is an escape artist, a skill he learned when his brother would tie him up. He’s the only human to survive a hanging. His trick for today is to have Howard tie 35 feet of rope around him any way he likes. The unimpressed judges buzz him.

The Distinguished Men of Brass is a brass marching band. They lost their jobs at an amusement park, so they decided to form a band and make a living that way. Howie has fun, and Sharon adores them.

Ulysses makes sure his Don King hair is good to go before he comes out on stage and sings the theme from Loveboat. Howard buzzes because it’s fun but not a million dollar act. Neither Green Acres nor The Addams Family are enough for Howard, but the other judges are sending him to Vegas.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 6, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

American Idol Season 11 Winner

The top 2 performed in American Idol Season 11 Episode 39. Tonight one of them will be crowned the American Idol 11 winner.

Phillip Phillips has been a clear frontrunner throughout the season, never once having been in danger, in spite of fairly weak vocals and the occasional disastrous performance. Jessica Sanchez has been a vocal powerhouse who nonetheless has been labeled as boring by some. Once Colton was out, she claimed the Twitter crown. Her sole moment in the hot seat came the weak in which she was eliminated.

And now, we wait. 2 hours and however many minutes this thing runs past the DVR allotment.

After 132 million votes, the winner of American Idol Season 11 is Phillip Phillips. I suspect we may possibly hear of him at some point in the future, though I doubt his song Home is going anywhere.

Though it’s fallen and gotten some competition from NFL and NCIS, meaning it is no longer the top ranked show for the first time in about a decade, American Idol still remains one of the highest rated programs on television, so it goes without saying we will be seeing it again next year, hopefully with different judges. Never fear. In the meantime, there are at least 15 other singing shows to fill the void.

America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 4

Some lackluster acts skated through in America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 3, though there was a good animal act, Olate Dogs. The New York auditions continue tonight.

Ronald Charles sings/dances/performs. All terribly. Howard Stern’s father tells him what he used to tell his son: “Don’t be stupid, you moron.”

John Pizzi is a comedian ventriloquist. Why are his lips moving so much? He picks suitable material, though, mocking the judges.

Donovan and his thin blonde wife Rebecca have an act that involves a lot of lifting of each other. You wouldn’t think it at first glance, but as big as he is, she does a lot of the lifting. This duo, Crazeehorse, was in the semifinals of Britain’s Got Talent Series 1, with a performance that suggests they have something much more impressive up their sleeves. Doesn’t seem entirely coincidental they waited until the year Piers (who was a judge that season) is gone before coming to America.

Tom Cotter is a stand up comic. Each joke he tells is funny. He says he’s a big fan of Howie, and Howie returns the compliment.

Stepz was abandoned by his drug addict mother, but he found dance while his grandmother raised him. Howard says he’s talented, but people won’t pay to see this. The other two judges back him, however.

The Savage Men smell like baby oil. Sharon asks to be surprised. The boys buzz, but Sharon wants to see them finally take something off. She gets to see a little bit of skin after some very bad dancing, but nothing either terribly impressive or surprising. Until Howard gets on stage and joins them. Seeing as even Sharon buzzed, they’re not going to Vegas.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 5, which airs Monday at 8/7c on NBC.

American Idol Season 11 Episode 39

Joshua Ledet was eliminated in American Idol Season 11 Episode 38. Tonight the moment I’ve been waiting all season for. A 1 hour episode. The contestants will sing three times each. First come choices by Simon Fuller, then the contestants resing their favorites song of the season, followed by winning songs that will hopefully be better than they usually are.

Jessica Sanchez
Song: I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston
Numbers: 1-866-IDOLS-01 or 1-866-IDOLS-03 or 1-866-IDOLS-05 or 1-866-IDOLS-07

The judges don’t have time to give their opinions after each song tonight. Darn. I take it they also don’t have time to give a standing ovation every time, so it’s a good thing Joshua’s gone then.

Phillip Phillips
Song: Stand by Me by Benny King
Numbers: 1-866-IDOLS-02 or 1-866-IDOLS-04 or 1-866-IDOLS-06 or 1-866-IDOLS-08

Jennifer has no opinion, just a bunch of questions. Randy says Jessica won round 1. Now that he says that, Jennifer agrees.

Seems tomorrow night’s 127 minute finale is not long enough, so tonight Jason Derulo performs.

For her second song, her favorite of the season, Jessica performs The Prayer by Celine Dion, a surprisingly unpredictable performance because it was her final one prior to the top 24, so it’s something we have not seen before.

Phil follows her with Movin Out by Billy Joel, which apparently he sang during Billy Joel week. Neither song sticks out to me as terribly memorable.

Steven says Jessica took it again, and that Phil’s only a partially hatched egg. Randy calls it even. Jennifer gives that round to Phil.

Next, the songs they will be forced to sing if they win. Has any winning song been any good? Only one I can think of is Kelly Clarkson’s A Moment Like This.

Jessica gets a song called Change Nothing. How about changing the song? Randy did not love it, but he loves that she did the best with what she was given. Jennifer doesn’t think she should do that song either.

Phil’s song is called Home. Just as terrible as Jessica’s song. Randy loved the song, Phil, the production, and the marching band. Yeah, we’re supposed to believe Randy loved a marching band.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 11 Episode 40, where we will find out who the American Idol Season 11 winner is, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 3

America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 2 brought us Luiz Meneghin and Alonso “Turf” Jones. Tonight the auditions continue in New York.

The Flyte Cru (really?) is a basketball stunt team. Very cool, but I’ve seen this before, more than once on this show. Howie says no on that basis, but the other two give them another shot.

Mir Money is a 7 year old rapper. I was expecting them to give him a pass to the top 40 based on his age, but Howard’s not falling for it, as he buzzes. Sharon joins him. A guilty Howard ends up voting yes, but the other two realize they can’t put the kid through another rejection like that.

Olate Dogs is a large animal act. They jump rope, do backflips, and dance together. A lot of room for error with so many animals, but it goes off without a hitch.

Horse is wearing a shirt that says “They call me nasty”. Between the name and the shirt, it’s apparent this will be pointless and quite stupid. His talent: repeatedly being bashed in the groin. So of course, he’s going to Vegas.

Wordspit and the Illest are a backpack pop culture arena rap group. Decent rapper, decent singer, but I don’t get the whole package, though the judges do.

Burton Crane’s talent is performing, which he later clarifies by saying he’s a 77 year old rapper. This will not end well. In spite of the fact that this act sucks, he gets a standing ovation. It’s like American Idol. The sad fact is that the song is catchy, and people will be talking about it in the morning more than anyone else.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 4, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Winner

Aubrey was finally fired in The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 13, setting up a final showdown between Clay Aiken and Arsenio Hall.

Trump starts off the evening getting a ride from an Andretti. I seem to remember him going out of his way to fire one of them for no good reason earlier in the season.

For all the drama of the cliffhanger we were left with, the video Arsenio received of Magic Johnson is perfectly usable. Typical.

The Clay/Debbie wall painting drama continues. When he receives pictures of her cousin’s past work, he agrees to let her paint. Because you wouldn’t want your walls to look silly when you’re putting on a carnival.

Aubrey continues to remind us that, in spite of the fact that she’s been fired, she’s still the best one there and the only reason Clay has anything.

Lou Ferrigno has gone out and given 110%, raising $41,000 for his charity, and George Takei has also raised about $60,000, much of it from himself. Dayana Mendoza does not have anything positive to say about Lisa, who did not display anything positive that could be said about her. Victoria Gotti refers to Aubrey as a cartoon character and Lisa as crude, rude, and classless. Tia Carrere doesn’t need to name names because everybody knows, but she’s not surprised to see two men in the finale.

When the parties start, there are Claymates everywhere. In Arsenio’s line, there’s about 6 people. Hopefully they’ll show up eventually.

Clay gets some donations from singers, and his largest initial donation is $20,000, pooled together by a bunch of his fans. Arsenio’s getting donations from comedians like Jay Leno and Eddie Murphy. Lisa manages to sneak away from Arsenio’s party, which she’s supposed to be working, to make a $10,000 donation to Clay.

After mingling on their own for a while, the parties cross together for Arsenio’s stand up and Clay’s musical show.

Aubrey’s blonde now. She seems surprised that anybody could have taken offense, but says this was a learning experience and apologizes for offending everybody.

Arsenio’s team raised $167,100; Clay’s team raised $301,500. Less impressive than what we’ve seen in years past, but still respectable. Based on how they tried to make it seem he never really focused on fundraising, plus taking into account who was on each team, I was not expecting Clay to have such a lopsided money victory. Trump tells us this isn’t all the task is being judged on, but it would seem very difficult to overcome.

Dayana would vote for Arsenio based on her experience working with Clay.

Ivanka says Clay was liked by almost everybody, strategically refined, and assertive when he needed to be. Arsenio was a bit more passive but highly effective as a leader, in spite of having a few more enemies.

The Celebrity Apprentice 5 winner is Arsenio Hall. Clay again has to settle for runner up status.

American Idol Season 11 Episode 38

The top 3 performed in American Idol Season 11 Episode 37. Tonight 1 more will be sent home. Eventually. But not very quickly.

This is a tough one to call. The problem is that Hollie and Elise so monopolized the bottom 3 this season with 6 appearances each that it hasn’t really given anybody an opportunity to view exactly how the public thinks about any of the three that remain. Realistically, any of the three could go home. Jessica’s already been eliminated once, though she’s been safe ever since, and Joshua has found himself in the bottom three as well. The only untouchable performer of the season has been Phil. If this is about singing, Phil’s toast, but American Idol never was a singing competition. Even Steven says it doesn’t matter if you hit all the notes.

11 minutes in, Seacrest tells us we’re going to get serious and get to some results. Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Go to the bathroom. Then make a souffle. You won’t miss anything.

Jessica Sanchez is the first person to make it into the finale. She will be competing against Phillip Phillips. Joshua Ledet has been eliminated.

Next week, finale week, will have a different schedule, with the show concluding on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 11 Episode 39, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Fox.