(S04E14) Last night, twelve acts battled it out for your votes. Who will make it through to the semi-finals? We found out the first five tonight.

But first, there was a big discussion about whether the last basket of Acrodunk actually went in last night. Piers said it didn't, and Sharon bet him $500 that it did. After the slo-mo replay, it was determined that it DID go in, and now Piers owes Sharon $500. Let's hope it goes to charity. Maybe a basketball camp for kids or something.

Nick introduced the acts, and I must say, there's quite a variety this season. I'm filling in for Isabelle on this review, and it's fun to see such a diverse group competing for the top prize.

(S04E13) "Tonight is opening night." - The Hoff

Here we go America, you now have control over America's Got Talent. And just based on the comments TV Squad readers left on my last three AGT posts, it's clear that viewers were not happy with the Top 40 selection and that they hoped the Simon Cowell curve ball would allow them to rectify the list and bring fan favorite Kari, Ciana and/or Tallan into the mix.

Did Simon throw the curve ball we wanted? Did the first Top 40 performers deliver? My two cents, and yours via comments, coming up!

(S04E12)

Based on the comments you left on last night's review, a few of you decided to stop watching the show because the "Vegas Verdicts" process was too cruel. How can the judges tell people they are going to Vegas and not have them perform a second time before they are sent back home? How cruel is it to get performers' hopes up by telling them they are going to Vegas when, in fact, most of them will have done the trip just to hear that they weren't good enough? Why did the judges send talented people such as Kari, Ciana and Tallan home and keep acts such as the dominatrix yodeler? On a side note, we shouldn't put all the blame on the judges. I'm sure the producers are pulling a few strings.

Be truthful, even if you vouched you would never watch America's Got Talent again, you couldn't help yourself from taking a peak at tonight's episode, eh? If you decided to not tune in to watch the last "Vegas Verdicts" cruel fest but still want to know what happened, here come the results!

(S04E11) "We can only put the best of the best through." - The Hoff

With the auditions finally over, it's time for the judges to get down to business and select the Top 40 acts amongst those -- 160 amazing, good, bad, and WTF? acts -- they let through to the "Vegas Verdicts" week. What the performers who were told they were going to Vegas didn't know is that the judges would be making cuts even before the performers could make their final plea to Sharon, Piers and David, for a chance to make it to the Top 40.

The performers were broken down into four groups. Groups A, C and D were told they would go through to the next round of judging. As expected, some people that didn't show real talent got through while Group B, which included acts such as guitarist Tallan Noble Latz, 8-year-old singer Ciana, singer Kari Callin and the Lake Houseton Performing Arts dance troupe, is going home.

What Groups A, C and D didn't know is that the judges would be making their final decision without them having to perform a second time...

(S04E10) "We've saved the best for last." - Nick about this being the last audition episode

The last America's Got Talent audition episode not only featured loads of good performances -- sadly, most shown in a quick montage -- but also an interview with Britain's Got Talent's Susan Boyle. The "Susan Boyle - Daring to Dream" interview with Meredith Vieira depicted well Susan's path to fame and her life struggles, but I would have preferred to have seen Boyle perform live on the show during one of the performance episodes in August. Then the contestants could have interacted with someone who went very far in the competition and be inspired by her story, as well as show that everyday people who truly have talent can become stars.

Before we get to my two cents about tonight's performances, I wanted to point out that contestant Shaunie, who performed a unique singing number in last night's episode, dropped by the comments section in my review of Audition show 9 to share the link to his YouTube channel so you can watch more of his talent.