‘America’s Got Talent’ rankings: Where Grace VanderWaal, Jon Dorenbos, Laura Bretan stand

Tonight, the first of two semifinal shows for “America’s Got Talent” is coming on the air, and with that, an impressive field of 11 contestants will be competing for some coveted spots in the finale.

So who is the best equipped to make it there? That’s what we gotta figure out in the latest edition of show rankings. There are some things, such as placement within the show, that are hard to predict; still, we’re going to do our best to estimate each act’s future based on body of work, voting history so far, and past precedent for similar acts in the competition.

11. Musicality – We’re not trying to be harsh, but we think the glee group is here because they performed on the weakest of the quarterfinal shows and had a much easier road that some of the other acts. They’ll need to step it up big-time to have a shot.

10. Edgar Family Band – Hats off to them for making it to this stage, given that we weren’t quite sure that they would after their first performance. With this particular field, which contains several strong singers, they’re going to have a rough time.

9. Deadly Games – If this was a ranking of our personal favorite acts, we’d have them much higher. Our concern stems from them needing a save in order to make it to this round, and an unfortunate bias that sometimes seems to exist against variety acts. They do similar things and get criticized for it, while singers do the same and are praised.

8. Sal Valentinetti – There’s a good chance Sal could have a big comeback performance tonight, but his decision to cover “Story of My Life” felt like a miss more than a hit. Hopefully he saw that in a weaker-than-expected voter turnout. It’s okay to mix genres, but it has to be with a song that shows off more of his signature voice.

7. Malevo – The audience reaction to then needing a Dunkin’ Save was STUNNING, and it symbolized that maybe there were people who assumed they were safe and didn’t vote for them. Tonight will be a true test of their audience size.

6. Lori Mae Hernandez – Howie Mandel may have been joking when he said that half of the country would be turned off of her because of her jokes, but he’s probably right. She has to kill so much with her comedy that she can be okay that Republicans everywhere will ignore her.

5. Blake Vogt – Blake easily impressed us with his act this past week, but more than that, we also got much more of a sense as to who he is. Personality-wise we felt he was a little forgettable entering the quarterfinals, and now we see him as far more of a threat.

4. Jon Dorenbos – Jon’s a wild-card for us entering tonight, and we don’t just mean that because he does a lot of card tricks. He’s talented and has a huge fan base stemming from his work in the NFL. Yet, he’s also had less time to prepare because of his commitments with the Eagles. Will that hurt him?

3. Laura Bretan – This is where things really get interesting to us, since opera singers often do make the finale that they take part in. Yet, they very rarely win. Even Jackie Evancho, arguably one of the most-famous singers ever on the show, didn’t get first place. As of right now, we see a similar trajectory to Laura just because there are some people out there who simply do not love opera.

2. Tape Face – To us, he’s the sentimental favorite, and we do think he has Kenichi Ebina upside where he picks up more and more momentum throughout to the point where he wins. The question we still wonder is if he’s as popular with the average casual viewer as he is with the internet.

1. Grace VanderWaal – Season 1 was the last time a female solo act won this show, and that’s an appalling piece of data that doesn’t get referenced enough. Grace has what it takes to break that trend, whether it be a huge viral following, a great voice, and originality. She’s someone who could become a big star after all of this; while we do understand that some people out there prefer to see non-singers win this show, we just can’t make a case for anyone else being at #1 right now.

Who do you think is the favorite for Tuesday’s “America’s Got Talent”? Vote in the poll below, and head over here to get some other coverage on the series! Also, sign up over here to secure some other TV news on everything we cover via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)