I Am Crestfallen and Furious

     

Whether it's Tyra, Nick, Springer or Regis saying it, I am now convinced that the phrase "America has voted" has absolutely no validity in determining the winners of America's Got Talent, which has become Anywhere's Got Talent.  During and after last night's last semifinal show, it became abundantly clear that the winners and losers are not chosen by the voting viewers, but by the show's corporate powers that be.
The first indication was one that I initially applauded on the show's Facebook page.  The judges were harshly critical of the early acts.  I was actually okay with that at the moment, as I am no fan of the early acts like Christina Wells and Da Republik.  And they did suck even more than they did before in their prior performances.

And I'm sorry, Simon (I shan't ever call him Sir Simon again) blatantly and biasedly bull squeezed in his backbiting criticism (not critique) of We Three. 

Something else I noticed through the run of the episode was sound quality.  Even with my simple little 32" Samsung, with its basic built-in speaker, I could hear the audio imbalance.  That thought was verified by viewers with much better televisions than mine, who commented on-line about the early on, super poor sound mixing, so that the music overpowered and overshadowed the singers' vocals.   Of course, by time the singing foreigners performed in the ninth and eleventh positions, the sound board was being properly operated, making Courtney and Glennis sound great.   And after each performance, the judges had nothing but the highest praise for both women.

Of course, the most blatant and obvious rigging and fixing, for the second week in a row, is that after casting a couple of sets of on-line votes for acts who are not favored by the powers who be, I was blocked from voting further with my various email accounts, which I had been allowed to do in previous weeks and prior seasons, in accordance to the posted rules of voting.   It makes me wonder if the votes that the system did seem to allow me to cast are honestly and accurately counted.
At this point, I can GUARANTEE that Glennis Grace and Courtney Hadwin will move on to the finals, regardless of how the viewing public voted.  They will join Simon's heartthrob, Michael Ketterer in the Final Five, behind overall winner, Zurcaroh, another non-American act.  In getting that far, all three will gain the fortunate fame without the contractual obligations of the winner, so that they can sign lucrative recording and performing deals with Simon's label.
Simon, I know that you don't give a tinker's damn about one old man, who has been a fan since almost the beginning, but you have lost me.  I'll watch tonight and next week, just to see how accurate my predictions are, but that will be the end of AGT  for me.   It makes me really sad, because, America's Got Talent is, or at least was the epitome of what television is, or at least was meant to be.