(S03E13) "The battle for the Top 10 begins." - Jerry

Little Kaithlyn pictured on the right was one of the final performers who got to hear if they made it to the Top 20 or not at the start of Episode 313 of NBC's America's Got Talent. Now that the Top 20 has been revealed, they are, as Jerry pointed it out, going to battle it out for a spot in the Top 10. Performers need to step it up as the competition gets more and more serious.

In order to decide the Top 10 performers, we will have to sit through four hours and a half of AGT this week. Yes, you read correctly, four hours of hearing Jerry remind us how great the show is, see Piers X contestants, listen to Sharon asking performers to bring more attitude to their act next week, and see The Hoff be all emotional after watching the acts. The four hours are broken down as follows: two two-hour-long live episodes (one down, one to go) and one 30-minute result show on Thursday at 8:30.

First things, first: the results from last week's second performance show. Kudos to the TV Squad readers who voted in our poll, you once again got 5 of the 5 acts right. Since I didn't think the Tapping Dads offered a good-enough performance, I didn't vote for them in my Top 5 of episode 312; therefore, I have 4 out of 5. The five acts moving on to the Top 20 are: Nuttin' But Stringz, Kaithlyn Maher, Eli Matson, Donald Braswell, and The Tapping Dads. Out of those five acts, I think only Nuttin' But Stringz have a fair shot at the prize because they are refreshing and unique in the competition. The others are mostly singers who have to battle better singers like Queen Emily and Neal E. Boyd. But since this is, as Jerry puts it, TV's most unpredictable show, who knows? Maybe The Tapping Dads will win the million dollars!

The Cadence - In the intro clip before the performance, The Hoff says that he doesn't think The Cadence have what it takes to sustain a full show. What?!? Minutes ago he told amateurish tapping dancers The Tapping Dads that they had what it took to entertain us for a 90-minute show but The Cadence, which gave us better performances than the dads and kept on improving while the dads didn't, doesn't have what it takes? It doesn't make sense to me. Then again, The Hoff doesn't always make sense. Thankfully, The Cadence proved him wrong. Even if I kept waiting for the wow factor in their performance, the percussionists gave an entertaining and energetic performance. I enjoyed seeing two of the guys sit on others' shoulders and have everyone play percussions in that setting. Sadly, once again, the group was badly treated by the editing of the show: music too loud to properly hear the percussions and weird camera angles, twists and turns.

Queen Emily - She is definitely one to look out for. Emily keeps on giving us great performances every week. She actually did better this week vocal-wise than last week. The song choice was fitting and allowed us to see her under a different light since she performed different styles since her audition. This week's performance was classy, emotional, on key, and powerful. She will definitely move on to the Top 10.

The Wright Kids - It's the end of the road for this group. Even if they are getting better every week, they can't compete with the rest of the performers. The middle kid's voice is high pitched, as you would expect at that age, but it quickly gets on my nerves (and I'm sure yours too). Kids would probably be able to sit through 90-minutes of his singing but I couldn't. He also needs to pronounce a bit more so we can hear the words clearly. No matter his voice, the overall performance this week was energetic and nice. But I don't think it was good enough to move on to the Top 10.

The James Gang - We have to agree with Sharon when she says that the group has been going backwards since the audition. Can it be that they can't handle pressure well? When the act started, I thought that they were getting back on track. The setting was nice, they listened to the judges and slowed down, and they tried to get crowd participation. However, things got sour when the first singer opened his mouth: he was off. The rest of the act wasn't better. It sounded like the singers were out of breath and out of energy. If you paid attention to the crowd, you didn't hear much. They didn't scream or applauded much during the performance. It felt like the crowd didn't know how to react to what The James Gang was offering. It's too bad that they didn't improve week to week because, as the judges said it, they have potential. I think that their Top 40 and Top 20 performances will send them packing.

Daniel Jens - Piers doesn't know when to shut up. Even if he thought that Daniel should re-enlist, Piers should have kept that comment for him and just tell Daniel that his performance wasn't good enough for him to move on when compared to the others. It's unlikely that Daniel will move on to the Top 10, so maybe he'll re-enlist. Then again, maybe Daniel will try to get a recording contract before people forget his name. Thursday's result show should help him make his decision. I agree with Piers that Daniel isn't good enough right now to move on. Everything he sang before the first chorus was sort of muffled. I think it was once again the sound technicians not doing their job as best as they could. The song choice was too safe. He did give a fair performance but he keeps doing the same type of songs over and over again. If by some miracle he moves on to the Top 10, Daniel will have to get out of his comfort zone and rock the house!

ZOOperstars! - Finally! The Hoff said that it was the end of the road for the ZOOperstars! Please America, listen to common sense and the three judges and don't vote for them. This week's performance was blah. They keep doing the same moves over and over again. Would you really go see 90 minutes of them jumping from one foot to the other and falling down?

Neal E. Boyd - Wow! Another fantastic performance. Usually, when singers say that they chose a song for one of their family members, it ends up being a bad choice. However, Neal nailed it. His voice was spot on, he offered great nuances, he worked well with the camera, and his facial expressions helped carry the emotions of the song. Sharon told Neal that he was hot tonight. I have to partially disagree. Neal looked really good in his suit. However, his signature hat is making me (and I'm sure some of you too) not take him as seriously as I should as an opera singer. The hat is actually distracting me when watching him because I keep thinking that he should remove it if he wants people to take him seriously. Hat or no hat, Neal is one of the top contenders for the grand prize.

Jessica Price - Even if Piers didn't like the song choice, it was really fitting her style. It allowed her to show more confidence on stage and that's something the judges asked her to work on. She is a sweet and shy singer that pleases the crowd; so even if her performance wasn't the best we've seen in this episode, she may get a spot in the Top 10.

Extreme Dance FX - I enjoy that dancing group very much thanks to, as the judges pointed out tonight, their fierce leader. After Piers told the lead dancer that he was mesmerized by her, I took a look back at what I was focusing on when watching EDFX and I must say it's her. She drives the group and is the glue that holds its members. This week, they offered yet another fantastic performance that was energetic and precise. The Hoff told them that he couldn't hear much clapping and asked them for more. I think that The Hoff must watch the performance again to discover that the problem is not EDFX but, yet again, the sound guys. The music is so loud that we can't hear the clapping.

Paul Salos - The second oldest reality show contestant (Jerry from Big Brother is three years older) showed us once again that he has what it takes to make it at least through another round. The bad sound guys were once again on a break as Paul couldn't hear the music during his performance. I must admit that if Paul hadn't said it, I would have never known. He was on key and followed the music throughout his performance. He showed confidence and worked well with the crowd. He may have not shown as much chemistry as in previous performances (partially because of the sound problem) this week, but Paul gave a performance that is good enough for a Top 10 spot.

Other tidbits of interest:

• The judges, especially Sharon, must have been relieved that Kaithlyn wasn't in 5th or 6th place. That way, they didn't have to make yet another kid cry.
• Since Queen Emily and Neal E. Boyd couldn't both perform last, the producers decided to have Paul Salos perform last. I don't know if they've been listening to us, but I'm happy that the powerful singers didn't perform last so we can make our minds on our own instead of being told, in a sneaky way, for whom we should vote.
• We got a commercial break between the results and no commercial break between performances 4 and 5. This changed the pace of the show for me and it affected my review routine. I was glad two weeks ago to see that results would be revealed before the first commercial break. It was refreshing to see a competition show that wasn't stretching the results forever and ever. Therefore, a tad of frustration set it when Jerry said we would know if DDD or Donald Braswel would go through.
• From the season premiere, I wondered if "a show in Las Vegas" meant one show performed one time or a few times. Well, I got my answer tonight. The Season 3 winner will perform live on October 17 at the MGM Grand Hotel Arena. The winner will headline the show but won't be the sole performer as there will be various guest appearances. You can get more details and buy tickets at Ticketmasters.
• I know Terry Fator made it really big after he won the show, and I rooted for him all of next season and am looking forward to his performance this week on the show. But can AGT also mention its Season 1 winner, Bianca Ryan? She may not have a 5-year deal to perform in Vegas, but she has an album out and the show helped put her on the map.
• I only noticed this week that those "Gone Completely Crakers" moments are, well, gone. Good riddance!

Now that the number of acts is being cut every week, it's getting harder to pick who should move on. Without a doubt, Queen Emily and Neal E. Boyd will get a spot in the Top 10. I would like to see Extreme Dance FX in there because they are a sharp and entertaining group plus it would ensure that we don't have a Top 10 solely composed of singers who should have been on American Idol.