‘America’s Got Talent’ review: Milton Patton, Skylir Hicks, Timber Brown close auditions

Tonight on “America’s Got Talent,” we reached the end of the audition portion of the competition by visiting just about every city on the audition tour, seeing some weird acts, and also a few possible standouts. It was a fun hour of TV, and there are times when we like this trimmed-down format of an hour-long show.

One other strange happening? That for two acts tonight, we actually saw a pair of judges have to recuse themselves thanks to personal relationships with some of the contestants.

Those machete dancers – We were too mesmerized by what they were doing to really pay much attention to their name, and we also were shocked at the attention that the audience gave them. Do we really want to see kids dance around with machetes? Not so much.

Timber Brown – This guy probably needs a little bit more of a routine at the end if he wants to do really well in Las Vegas. The fact that he wasn’t happy with the routine is probably a good thing. He knows that it wasn’t perfect, and knows therefore that there are a number of things that he can work on.

Skylir Hicks – This has to be the strangest spelling of this name that we’ve ever seen. She’s a pretty good singer, and we like that there’s a songwriting presence already here. The problem that we constantly run into with talents like hers is just that we scripted everything from the moment she said her dad died; she got a ton of praise from the judges, and they said that her father would be proud of her.

Dr. Bob Baker – This was strange to say the least. We just saw Howard Stern’s stomach doctor come on the show and perform using a puppet of intestines. It was moderately amusing, but thanks to getting turned down, he’s probably going to ruin Howard during his next procedure.

Milton Patton – Let’s be honest: You didn’t expect that voice to come out of this guy, did you? We don’t really love very many country singers (mostly because they all tend to blend together in our mind), he’s got a lovely tone. He does need some classes on expanding his range, but this is a case where all of the tools really are there.

Jetta – We were hoping that the auditions would close with something great; instead, we got some Howard Stern superfan / crazy woman.

Who was your favorite tonight on “America’s Got Talent,” and is there an act you’re looking forward to leading up to the next round? If you want to check out some other highlights from this season, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: NBC