Should William Close Have Done ‘AGT: The Champions’ Instead of ‘The World’s Best’?
Virginia Sherwood / NBC Reading Time: 3 minutes
William Close brought a unique flavor of music to The World’s Best stage with his Earth Harp, but the show wasn’t his first rodeo in the variety talent competition world.
When some savvy talent show fans managed to spot William for a split second in one of the commercials promoting the series before it aired, many were surprised by his involvement with the show. William placed third on Season 7 of America’s Got Talent, and many people – including us her at Talent Recap – were surprised not to see him on America’s Got Talent: The Champions, which filmed around the same time as The World’s Best last fall.
So was he not invited to participate on Champions, or had he already signed on to do World’s Best when asked? We’ll probably never know, but either way, it’s hard not to think of what might have been. How would William have fared on the AGT spin-off compared to how he did on World’s Best?
As a reminder, William and his Earth Harp Collective were a hit during the audition round and ended up with a total score of 87/100, 12 points higher than the minimum amount needed to advance. During the battle round, however, they were put up against a capella vocal group Naturally 7, who beat him 95-40 for a spot in the Group Music category finals.
It’s hard to compare results and placements between Champions and World’s Best, given the stark difference in method of determining results (fan vote vs. judging panel) and the fact that the former only had two rounds while the latter looks to have at least four altogether. However, despite the odds of making it past the first round being way lower on Champions, I think William may have been able to do it and therefore reach the finals of that show. Of course, it would depend on which episode they put him in, but I could see him making top 3 in most of the groups we saw on Champions, and that would most likely be the – admittedly very rough – equivalent of making it to the category finals, which he failed to do so on The World’s Best.
While AGT Champions without a doubt had its share of world class acts, we’d have to say the caliber of talent was overall lower than that of The World’s Best. (Though this shouldn’t come as a surprise; after all, the casting team for World’s Best spent about two years hunting for incredible and unique – and often already well-established – performers from across the globe.) Most of The World’s Best‘s acts would be major stand-outs on AGT, but when all are competing against each other, some are doomed to be early casualties.
Also, we have to admit William’s AGT Season 7 performances were a lot more impressive than his World’s Best ones. (We’re not sure why – possible limitations with a smaller studio?) Given the amount of Champions performances that were reprisals of those from previous seasons, William may have competed with one of his most well-received acts again had he done that show instead of what he did on World’s Best.
Ultimately, we would have preferred for William to be one of the AGT Champions, but it was still nice to see him on The World’s Best. But what do you think? Which show do you thin was the better fit for him? Let us know in the comments below!
