‘America’s Got Talent’ preview: Piff the Magic Dragon, Drew Lynch performing in first live show

Tonight marks a big show on “America’s Got Talent,” mostly because of the fact that we are finally done with the judge cuts and on to the live shows.

So who is going to be performing? NBC announced the lineup tonight, and it includes the following performers: Alondra Santos, Showproject, Benton Blount, Triple Threat, Drew Lynch, Vita Radionova, The Gentlemen, Craig and Micheline, Paul Zerdin, Siro-A, Samantha Johnson, and Piff the Magic Dragon. That is a pretty impressive crop of contestants!

So who is the early favorite of the group? Drew Lynch was ridiculously funny, but he also only performed once courtesy of getting the Golden Buzzer in the auditions. Piff the Magic Dragon was awesome both times we’ve seen him, and we feel like he is also aided by the fact that he got the Golden Buzzer of Neil Patrick Harris during the judge cuts round.  We’re going with Siro-A right now as the overall favorite. Similar acts have performed very well on the show, and they have a history performing all over the world. They should handle the presence of live television really well.

As for everyone else, Vita was sensational last we saw her, Samantha is a singer and voters love singers, and Benton has that story that will appeal to many. We’re already worried about Paul and his creepy puppet from the last time he performed on the show.

While there are some clear standouts, what is great about this show is that there is still a certain element of flexibility. We’ll rank the contestants going into next week’s show, so be sure to stay tuned.

If you missed it, our review of this past “America’s Got Talent” episode is over at the link here! Also, sign up here to get some more TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)