Ahem.

JIMMY ROSE STOLE JOHN WINGS PLACE IN THE FINAL DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why, yes, I would have liked to see John Wing go through :(

(Sorry about that - I needed to get it out of my system)

But in all seriousness, I don't think that either of the two country singers should have gone through; for all that I really like them, neither of their performances were terribly strong compared to all the acts who were on fire last night.

It would appear that I was right to worry about John Wing going unnoticed amid the whizz-flash-bang; what's so really frustrating about it is that his understated delivery is a big part of what makes him a brilliant comedian. I really wish he'd been on last week's semifinal and Taylor Williamson on this one. Then he would have gone through and I could have waved a happy goodbye to Taylor.

Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk, I suppose, and I am happy with the other results. Though I wish Anna Christine could have gone through too. I absolutely do not blame the judges creating a tie last night - it was the only possible outcome given the acts they had to consider. I'm surprised that D'Angelo and Amanda didn't get more votes. I think that going first might have hurt them (and I think that going last probably helped Jimmy Rose).

So I've been looking at the complete list of finalists, and next week's show looks.like it could be pretty darn good, though I think there's too great a range of abilities there to be able to equal last night. I think the front runners are Forte, Chicago Boyz, Kenichi Ebina and the Kristef Brothers. Collins Key and Catapult are surprisingly popular (well, perhaps not so surprising in the case of Collins - he's amazing at what he does, he's young, he's cute and he's single! Needs to work on his presentation, though). Brandon James could be a bit of a dark horse - if he can avoid being overshadowed by Forte he might have an outside chance of winning it. I think that Jimmy Rose and Innovative Force will be completely out of their depth; I hope Taylor Williamson will be as well. D'Angelo and Amanda are really good, but I don"t think they have a chance with Kenichi Ebina and the Chicago Boyz in the mix. And I have absolutely no idea what to think about Cami Bradley. She could turn out to be another dark horse.

As for who I would like to win - Kristef Brothers all the way, and it has been ever since their audition. This is very unusual for me; normally I change my mind several times over the course of this kind of competition. I think I'd like either Forte or Kenichi Ebina to be the runner-up, though my feelings about that aren't nearly as strong as they would have been had John Wing been in the final :)