The 7th season of America’s Got Talent (AGT) kicks off on Monday, May 14, 2012. This audition episode starts at 8 p.m. Eastern time and is scheduled for two hours.
According to TV Guide, the premiere episode on the 14th will contain auditions from Los Angeles, CA and St. Louis, MO.
Nick Cannon is back to host, but there is a new sheriff at the judges’ table. Howard Stern is taking the place of Piers Morgan. Sharon Osbourne has mentioned quitting before but is back for Season 7. Howie Mandel is also back for his third season on AGT.
I’ll be live blogging the crazy action here once the show starts on Monday. Expect a lot of lame auditions with buzzing and some lame auditions that go straight through as a joke. The talent didn’t blow me away last year, so hopefully we find some of that, too.
Live Show:
The show is starting out in Los Angeles. They show a preview of some contestants and a guy doing a human-cannonball act.
They are pimping Howard Stern hard to start the show. He says he is going to be tough as a judge.
The first guy is a magician. He is Aoni Jackson and 34 years old. Howie comes up and gives him his wedding ring. The guy gets buzzed cause it wasn’t even a magic trick. He suddenly becomes a half stripper. He does not make it.
Oh, no. We have another Bird Lady. This woman has 22 birds, and this is their first performance. Bird Lady actually sings and is pretty good. But the birds are just a distraction. Howard buzzed it. Howie says he likes it. Howie votes YES. Howard votes NO. Sharon says NO.
A weird singer comes out and does “Proud Mary.” He gets buzzed. Several other singers come out and perform and get buzzed.
William Close (42). He’s with Sarah, his fiancee, who is 5 months pregnant. William plays the earth harp. This harp is huge, and he made it. It goes all the way up to the balcony. Howard doubts he makes money. He plays it, and it sounds closer to a violin than a harp. It sounds quite nice, and it is certainly unique. Close gets three big YESES and a standing ovation from the judges.
The vibe is a bit different with the judges this year. They keep showing them talking between acts and discussing things like friends instead of the forced animosity from years past.
A girl dance act is up next. They are Elements Dance Crew and do clogging. This is the exact type of act that is always overrated on America’s Got Talent. Yeah, they were good. But it’s nothing special. And the one solo was weak and barely pulled off a decent flip. To no one’s surprise, they get three YESES and go to the Las Vegas round.
All Wheel Sports is an act that makes it, but the edit was really fast. There are stunt bikers, trampoline artists, and a bunch of other stuff. They make it.
Amazing Elizabeth is a young girl that does an aerial act. She makes it.
Chris LeVar raps about the judges. It was decent rapping but was really cool because of the words, which were funny. He got 3 YESES.
Jorge and Alexa Narvaez (father and daughter). Dad (25) plays the guitar okay. The kid (7) is a good singer for her age. Overall, it’s the type of act that can do pretty well if they get to the live shows. The kid is kind of comedian, too. She is hilarious. They got three YESES and are going to Vegas.
Nick Cannon says the preview of The Amazing Spider-Man is coming up.
St. Louis Auditions
The second hour of this episode consists of the St. Louis city auditions. The judges apparently get stuck in an elevator for a while with Howie’s mom.
Ben Blaque is 32 years old. He does a crossbow act. He has pretty much pinpoint accuracy, but this just isn’t that impressive because this fancy crossbow even has a telescope on it for aiming. All three judges vote YES.
Light Wire Theater blacklight act: Well, if Team iLuminate could not win last year, it’s going to be hard for this one to win. But it was a good act and has the potential of being better than Team iLuminate. They get three YESES.
Some guy comes out and puts a scorpion in his mouth and goes to Vegas. A guy who looks like a funny ventriloquist with a dog puppet performs. They didn’t even say his name, but he made it to Vegas. I wanted to see more of him cause it looks like he could be good.
Stick and Move Dance Crew. This was really fast, but the judges said they loved it.
Sanjula Vamana (35) is from Chicago. His wife Red Rum is part of the act. He puts needles through his cheeks. All 3 judges buzz him.
A bunch of guys play the kazoo and get buzzed. Stormin Norman does some ridiculous act with a pumpkin and gets buzzed.
Loyalty Dance Crew is from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They are pretty sharp but are depending more on the choreography than talent to get through. These guys have speed, but they don’t do anything beyond that. The judges give them three YESES. This is so predictable. They cannot win.
Simply Sergio (47) is up next. His wife is his No. 1 fan. How shocking! His singing is really bad. He is getting buzzed by the judges. Nick is dancing with his wife. He then sings “God Bless America.” It is better than the first performance. The judges are rethinking now. Howard hugs him. He got three YESES.
Maurice and Shanice Hayes (62 and 18) are a father and daughter vocal duo. They sing “You’ve Got a Friend.” This gets a standing ovation. It reminds me of Christina and Ali from a couple of years ago, but they are a little better overall.
This is the end of the Los Angeles and St. Louis audition episode for America’s Got Talent 7.