The First Week of ‘AGT’ Semi-Finals is Absolutely STACKED
NBC Reading Time: 3 minutes
Next week will mark the start of the penultimate round of America’s Got Talent Season 13: the semi-finals! Each week, 11 acts will compete for just five spots in the finals, so it’s sure to be a nail-biting couple of weeks.
The contestants set to perform in the first episode of the semi-finals next Tuesday will be…
- singer Amanda Mena
- trapeze artists Duo Transcend
- multimedia act Front Pictures
- dance group Junior New System
- singer Makayla Phillips
- singer Michael Ketterer
- stand-up comedian Samuel J. Comroe
- card magician Shin Lim
- two-piece band Us The Duo
- Voices Of Hope Children’s Choir
- acrobatic group Zurcaroh
Okay, so this is shaping up to be the most competitive episode of the season (possibly even more than the actual finale?). For starters, we’ve got five of the seven remaining Golden Buzzer acts up this week: Amanda Mena, Makayla Phillips, Michael Ketterer, Voices Of Hope, and Zurcaroh. That’s nearly half the lineup. Now, of course, Golden Buzzer recipients aren’t always better than the acts who didn’t get one, but the honor pretty much always gets a contestant’s performance to go viral, and having that big moment on their AGT resume tends to make an act more memorable to the general audience. That certainly seemed to be the case here, four of this week’s Golden Buzzer acts sailed straight into the top 5 of their quarter-finals episode, while Makayla scored the Week 2 Dunkin’ Save from the audience.
That’s not to say all five of them are going to make the finals, though. While I’m pretty sure Zurcaroh is the top lock to make it through in this group, I think Voices Of Hope will probably be out this episode, along with at least one of the other Golden Buzzer singers.
On top of all the Golden Buzzer glory, we also have Shin Lim and Duo Transcend back this week. Both of these acts are fan favorites and bring variety to the show. Having so many singers in the semi-finals actually tends to work in favor of the remaining variety acts because it makes them stand out more, so I think both of these acts have a good shot at making the finals.
There aren’t many weak links in this episode, but I’m thinking Junior New System and Front Pictures could be in some trouble. They’re the only two acts this week besides Makayla who didn’t crack the top 5 in their quarter-final episodes, and they don’t have the Golden Buzzer advantage that she does. Junior New System narrowly made it through their quarter-final, but I don’t think the viewers are as passionate about them as they are most of the others this week. And while Front Pictures was very close to winning the Dunkin’ Save over Makayla (and could possibly come out on top over her in their “grudge match” this week) I just don’t think they’re going to have the juice to beat out at least six of the ten acts they’re going to be up against on Tuesday.
Be sure to tune in for the first week of the America’s Got Talent Season 13 semi-finals, starting at 8/7c on MBC Tuesday, September 4.
