‘America’s Got Talent’ postmortem: Why Steven Brundage, Calysta Bevier were eliminated
The final ten acts for “America’s Got Talent” this season are set, but last night’s show came with some surprises. While we were happy to see people like Linkin’ Bridge and Viktor Kee make it in, we were certainly shocked at some of the people who didn’t.
So what happened to get us to this particular point? That is something we’re happy to break down further in the latest edition of our day-after postmortem series.
Calysta Bevier – Let’s start with who may be the most stunning departure, given that Simon Cowell’s Golden Buzzer acts have a history of making it all the way to the finale on the British version. Bevier’s talent was worthy of making it there and even being a candidate to win, and it’s hard to pinpoint precisely what went wrong. We do thing that the glut of singers on Tuesday night hurt her, as did the song choice. Given how many people were doing slower songs, she may have benefited from doing something a little bit more fun and optimistic. We also put a little bit of the blame on the show here; there’s no doubt that Calysta’s story of overcoming cancer is power and inspirational, but they didn’t do a great job of allowing us to get to know her beyond that.
Steven Brundage – Given that we loved the trick Brundage did on this past show, we were bummed that he didn’t advance; heck, he wanted to blame Howie Mandel for repeatedly going on about how the final portrait didn’t look that much like Brad Pitt. This was just a structural problem, since when Rubik’s Cubes are your canvas, it’s hard to make them look like anyone. We do think what he was able to do with just one particular item was fabulous. Aside from the visual of the reveal, his biggest problem was also probably competition given that he appeared on the same show as The Clairvoyants and Kadan Bart Rockett.
Kadan Bart Rockett – Kadan’s got a huge future in magic; his fate was likely sealed from the start this week because he performed so early in the show. We also do think that the pacing this time around was a little weaker than previous ones, especially since so much of his selling quality was his energy. Still, you can’t be too upset if you’re a kid magician who beat many adults in the same category.
Jayna Brown – Like Kadan, this one is easy to identify: She performed too early in the show. She mentioned getting to go to a performing arts school, and we hope that she takes advantage of that opportunity to continue to grow while posting performances online here and there. If she really hones her craft, in three or four years we wouldn’t be shocked to see her on Broadway or with a major album out there.
The Passing Zone – We do think that they suffer to a certain extent from feeling less like an act and more like torture devices for the judges. As entertaining as they may be, they may actually be too professional for their own good in a sense. We never thought they would advance as wild cards, but we would go a see a professional show of theirs sometime.
Kadie Lynn Roberson – Her problems were a multitude of things already mentioned. She performed too early in the show, she performed something that really sapped away much of her youthful spirit, and she also had a lot of other singers on the night. We do forget just how young she is; from here, what she needs to focus on is continuing to improve rather than setting on her fan base as-is.
You can head over here to get some more “America’s Got Talent” news, including our take on this past results show! Also, sign up over here to secure some other TV news on everything we cover via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)