The night that used to give TV viewers nothing to look forward drastically changed last night. Last week I watched absolutely nothing on Tuesday. Last night I watched four series. With two season premieres (one being a series premiere) there is plenty of television to discuss today. After the break I will discuss America’s Got Talent and The Superstars season premieres; how Hawthorne’s second episode performed; and the lack of logic behind ABC airing Better Off Ted episodes during the summer.
America’s Got Talent: If NBC’s commercials didn’t remind you enough, last night the new season began. I would have to say that the season premiere was pretty solid. First I applaud America’s Got Talent for getting a new host. Nick Cannon is not a great host but he is already significantly better that the snore fest, teleprompter reading Jerry Springer.
As far as the performances themselves I have to say that I hope the show finds some better performers. While some of the singing acts were pretty good, I really want to see more original acts especially after last seasons singing showdown finale. Personally I think the show should have the singing acts compete for a title and then have the rest of the acts compete for another title. I wouldn’t mind singing acts being put through so often if it wasn’t in spite of more original acts.
A couple of acts stood out to me.
- First I am curious if Pete Peterkin can really do over 300 impressions. If that is true I think he has some real potential for making it quite far in the competition.
- I thought Rock’n Rory was talented but I really didn’t find the frisbee act to be much better than several other similar acts I have seen.
- All I can say about Brad Byers act was that it was sort of disturbing. The man is obviously talented but his talent (putting things up his nose) has little to no lasting potential which is compounded by the fact that it is hard to even watch his act.
- The EriAm Sisters and The Voices of Glory are both great singing groups but as I mentioned earlier I root exclusively for the unique acts since unlike singing there is no other place for these acts to show off their talent.
- David Johnson was the strangest act of the night. It is so hard to judge his lasting potential. If you base his performance on his singing he should have been x’d off the stage within seconds. But when you look at the lyrics to his song I believe he deserved to move onto the next round. His song was quite funny. If his act consists of other funny songs I think he could last quite a while. If he is relying on his actual singing talent he will be a quick cut at the Vegas auditions.
- Finally Paradizo Dance was the most shocking act of the night. I was shocked that such a small woman was able to lift her husband that was well over twice her weight. Their performance could use a little work for the next round though.
© Adam Larkey/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
The Superstars: Besides America’s Got Talent, The Superstars also premiered. I thought the show was far from great but I am willing to give the show another chance. I think several things need to be changed though and quickly.
We’ll begin with the hosts. I don’t know if the show could have done any worse with their choices for hosts. John Saunders was terrible as the play by announcer. About 5 minutes into the show and I already couldn’t stand his forced enthusiasm about what was going on. The show could have done with a much more realistic amount of enthusiasm in the play by. It wasn’t like last night’s episode was the Super Bowl. I doubt this problem will be fixed anytime soon though.
The second problem with the series involves the concept of the show. I honestly think the show should have gone one of two ways. First it could have taken everyday Americans and teamed them with athletes. The second choice was to actually get real celebrities. The show did neither. While ABC might try to convince us that their competitors are real celebrities I have to disagree especially since I haven’t heard of around two thirds of the celebrities.
Finally the series needs to pick up the pace. There is no reason why the show should have been an hour and a half. I think it would have been stretching it if it was only an hour.
I do have to say that I am glad that TO’s team was the first eliminated since I can’t stand him.
© Ron Tom/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
Better Off Ted: I honestly can’t understand what in the world ABC was thinking airing episodes of Better Off Ted in the summer. Not surprisingly the episode did terrible in the ratings. I want to know why ABC is burning off episodes in the summer when they ended up ordering more episodes for next season. Why didn’t they save these episodes so they either didn’t have to order as many episodes or they would have more episodes to extend the series run nest year. The only thing I could think of was that they plan on totally relaunching the series when it comes back.
As far as the episode itself, I thought it was pretty good even though it wasn’t the series’ best. Showing how big of nerd I must be, I have to say that I think Medieval Fight Club would be pretty fun as long as those swords weren’t as real as they looked.
HawthoRNe: Another solid but unspectacular episode of HawthoRNe. It appears that HawthoRNe is going to remain a solid but unspectacular series. I do like that the series is keeping some humor in the show while also trying to be a serious drama. At this point I plan on sticking with the series since summer tv is always lacking for solid scripted shows.
