America's Got Talent: Season 5 - FINALE

And now, my final America's Got Talent blog post for season 5:

America's Got Talent Season 5: FINALE
Airdate: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 [8-10pm]

• Prince Poppycock performed "Last Dance" and "No More Tears" with Donna Summer
• The Beatles' "Love" by Cirque du Soleil
• Michael Grimm performed "Me and Bobby McGee" with Jewel
• Fighting Gravity performed while Lionel Richie sung "Dancing on the Ceiling"
• Video: Nick Cannon highlights
• Sponjetta (auditioner) and Nick Cannon perform her song, "Studio," later joined by T-Pain
• Video: Bad auditions
• Audition All-Stars perform "I Gotta Feeling"
• Here are the season 6 audition stops (which start in October):
• Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Atlanta & Houston
• Jackie Evancho performed "Time to Say Goodbye" with Sarah Brightman
• Video: Judges highlights; when the video was over, Piers and Howie were replaced by Future Funk at the judges table and they hit their X's.
• David Copperfield performed
• Goo Goo Dolls performed "Slide"
• Video: The week leading up to the final performance episode
• 4th Place: Prince Poppycock
• 3rd Place: Fighting Gravity
• Usher performed "DJ Got Us Falling in Love"
• Video: Journey of the Final 2
• Runner-Up: Jackie Evancho
• WINNER: MICHAEL GRIMM!

I think it's safe to say that pretty much everyone was wrong in their predictions. Almost everyone online said that either Jackie Evancho or Fighting Gravity would win. Even though I am upset at the results here, I still have to say that Michael Grimm is one of the most talented singers to come on this show, and I very well may buy his CD if he comes out with one.

My Prediction Totals for the Season: 31/38 = 82% (if only making predictions was this easy on American Idol).

Here are all the times I have selected a performance as my favorite for the entire season:

• Jackie Evancho: 4
• Fighting Gravity: 3
• Michael Grasso: 3
• Anna and Patryk: 3
• Prince Poppycock: 2
• Michael Grimm: 2
• Murray: 1
• Harmonica Pierre: 1
• Alice Tan Ridley: 1

To close out this the fifth season of NBC's hit summer show (and the #1 show of the summer), America's Got Talent, here are my closing thoughts:

There have been many times this season when I have been frustrated by this show (during the beginning and middle of the season when the judges would make some ridiculous decisions and we the viewers wanted to just slap them up the heads for not focusing on talent). But once we got down to the final 10, we had a pretty solid group of finalists and without a doubt the strongest set of finalists this show has ever seen.

Coming off of last season when the non-talented Kevin Skinner won (who the judges were gushing over, and the majority of voters went deaf and just followed what the judges wanted), I came into season 5 with cautious optimism, with the ope that this year we would get back on track after that one slip-up. Because I believe that with the exception of Kevin Skinner, the right person has won every single year (Bianca Ryan, Terry Fator, Neil E. Boyd). When it came down to this year's final 4, I was so sure that either Jackie Evancho or Fighting Gravity would win. Alas, that did not happen. With both last year and this year, I am seeing some parallels to American Idol here. The winners from last year's American Idol and America's Got Talent (Kris Allen and Kevin Skinner, respectively) were the least talented winners those shows have ever seen. And this year's winners on both shows (Lee Dewyze for AI and Michael Grimm for AGT) were definitely big steps up from the previous year, but were not the most talented from the year. They were both very likable and definitely had a lot of talent, but Crystal Bowersox should have won over Lee, and either Jackie Evancho or Fighting Gravity should have won over Michael. But when it comes down to it, the future is when we will see if America did in fact get it wrong (from album sales, etc).

Sorry for going off on that little rant here. I just had to get that out. But regardless, I have nothing against Michael Grimm, and I do hope he able to put out a CD, because I'm sure he has a great recording voice. And I know Jackie will do just fine. And I'm confident that Fighting Gravity will get their own show in Las Vegas (Prince Poppycock is also perfect for Vegas as well).

Well...Season 5 of America's Got Talent is now over, which means that another summer is almost at its end as new and returning shows premiere in the fall season. At times, this summer's AGT seemed to drag on and on without an end in sight. Now that it is over, it's time to gear up for the fall season (some shows have begun already). I had fun doing commentary for AGT this year, and I hope I am able to do it next summer as well. The next time my commentary returns to the blog will be in the first couple months of the new year when American Idol returns, and again next summer for season 6 of AGT. And now, for the final time this year: see ya then...