Pastor Fireball wrote:rayxtwo wrote:With them telling the audience the peoples back story this could turn into a popularity contest instead of the winner having the best talent.
That was exactly the only thing wrong with that special... but what else did you expect from the network that gave us
American Idol?
I thought it was just a special one-off. Yes, it was on Fox and produced by Endemol Shine North America, so there was bound to be certain familiar touches in the telecast.
My top three were speedy math guy, piano eye lady, and blind laser girl (even with the fail). I had the winner 5th and Mr. Mosaic 4th. Was I surprised at the winner? No, not at all. The pimp spot/touching backstory is powerful (Yes, I do wonder if he really was the last to perform) and also he personally met (as short as it was) a bunch of the audience members for another advantage.
I've seen the name/face/personal fact/phone # memory skills too many times on other programs to think I was seeing anything superhuman by the winner or the other guy in the pick-up bar scene.
I thought it made a lot of sense to do a quick montage for the acts out of contention that looked awful like the smell one.
Kumar, I mean Kal Penn, was a better choice as host than I expected. Iron Mike, Chloe and the doc as judges (or whatever their title was) could have easily been replaced by others in their fields as they did little to enhance the show. The contrast between the three worked and I did not feel they hurt the program either.
My favorite part of the two hours was by some miracle recognizing a portion of piano piece (by carefully watching the right hand) played (while having my TV on mute) to explain the lady's skill and correctly guessing the song.