And The ‘AGT’ Wildcard For The Semifinals is…
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After three weeks of America’s Got Talent quarter-finals, we’re left with 21 acts set to compete in the next round. During the next two weeks we will see 11 performances on each night of the semi-finals, and by the end we will be left with just 10 of them as finalists.
But wait, how can there be 11 acts in both episodes if there are only 21 contestants left? The show fixes this by bringing back one last wildcard to round out the semi-finals. Many fans have been pining for their favorites to return, and the top three choices seem to be Mochi, The Sacred Riana, and Front Pictures.
The AGT Wildcard Is…
Well, we finally have our answer. All of the contestants set to compete on the September 4th episode were featured on AGT‘s Instagram story today, including semi-finals wildcard…Front Pictures!
‘Front Pictures’ is the American Idol semifinals wildcard act
This choice makes a lot of sense seeing as they were only about 0.1% behind Dunkin’ Save winner Makayla Phillips in their quarter-finals results show. Naturally, with a vote that close, many viewers were upset the judges elected to save dance group Da RepubliK over them in the final verdict of the evening. While an AGT semi-finals wildcard has never made it to the finale, the options for the spot with the theoretical highest chance at making it are the acts sent home via losing the judges’ save (or tiebreaker) since we know they got more votes than the other acts eliminated in their episode.
What makes the choice of Front Pictures as semi-final wildcard particularly special is that they are a “double wildcard”; an act brought back from the dead twice. They share the honor with Metal Mulisha Fitz Army, a motocross team who competed back in Season 10. What’s even more interesting is the fact that both of these acts skipped the Judge Cuts round without receiving a Golden Buzzer during auditions. With the complex setup required for both acts, it’s possible they did a second, non-televised audition to make up for it, or the show may have decided to simply advance them to the quarter-finals (as a type of “ghost” Golden Buzzer, if you will).
Either way, it’s certainly noteworthy that two of the four seasons that have featured the current format of the show have had a semi-final wildcard follow a very similar trajectory throughout the competition (the one major difference being Front Pictures nearly making it through their quarter-final show while Fitz Army was one of the bottom 4 in their week).
That brings us to the big question: will Front Pictures make AGT history and become the first semi-finals wildcard to advance to the finale? While that would be awesome, I’m going to have to say no. If they were on the September 11th episode I would say they might have a chance, but next week is going to be an absolute bloodbath, particularly among the variety acts. Being up against the likes of Zurcaroh, Duo Transcend, and Shin Lim, as well as a bunch of Golden Buzzer singing acts the audience seems to love, will make the semi-finals an uphill battle for Front Pictures.
Regardless of what happens from here, it’s great to know we will be seeing another performance from Front Pictures. They have definitely brought a touch of unique variety to Season 13, and it’ll be very exciting to have that back on the show!
