‘America’s Got Talent’ rankings: Why Kenichi Ebina, Forte, and KriStef Brothers are top three

Now, we’re getting to the point where “America’s Got Talent” rankings are significantly more difficult. Nobody who makes it this far in the competition is terrible at all. Everyone is great, and everyone has something different to bring to the table. Therefore, you have to ask yourself who you would actually want to shell out money to see in Las Vegas, or who past audiences have voted for to win. These are the variables that determine the rankings below, where there are only a few people we feel are close to guaranteed to make it to the finale.

12. Innovative Force – Very happy to be at this stage in the competition, but probably won’t go any further. We just don’t see enough about a dance / gymnastics act to make it into the finale. Plus, we can’t see anyone outside of their diehard fans in their hometown really hitting the phones.

11. Branden James – He’s coming off a pretty poor performance, and going against an act like Forte is going to seriously dip into his audience. There are many singers in the top 12, and this poses a problem given that people who vote for singers typically are a certain percentage of the audience.

10. D’Angelo and Amanda – Almost like Innovative Force, these two are amazing at what they do. Unfortunately for them, the problem comes in trying to really do something worthy of the grand prize when all of the moves have been done in the past. We don’t really think winning is possible for them, but they could eventually use this towards some other great opportunities.

9. Cami Bradley – She’s a very good singer, but have we already seen most of what she has to offer at this point? She also probably has the thinnest story of anyone left in the competition, and we are at a time when this really does start to matter more and more.

8. Collins Key – A guy who has gotten the teenage-girl vote so far, and that’s mostly it. He has a ton of potential for his age, but his last trick was almost a carbon-copy of what he had done previously, and it was boring and poorly-executed. We think his audience gives him a show, but we’re concerned about his act.

7. Catapult Entertainment – While Catapult can recover from what happened last week, there is a certain issue when a group like this falters: You feel like the magic is gone. We don’t know if they can recover and the audience will still love them as much as they once did.

6. Taylor Williamson – A brilliantly-funny guy, and someone possibly helped by there not being another comic in the top 12. While material is the key here and that can be difficult given the time limits, we think that Taylor has bought enough good faith from the audience at this point to come out and kill it.

5. Chicago Boyz – These guys have done some incredible stuff, but there is also a huge risk to their act. If one thing goes wrong, everything falls apart. We can’t justify giving them top billing when there is that much pressure, and we don’t know what else they have left to show.

4. Jimmy Rose – Being a country singer and a coal miner is really all he needs to get to the finale at this point, even if he’s not the best singer in all the land. The only way he doesn’t make it there is if he goes early and is buried by criticism, which we would not be shocked to see happen.

3. KriStef Brothers – We worry if some out there could take their little sword game last week the wrong way and think that they were pretending to swallow swords when they really weren’t, but regardless, this is the coolest strength act that we have ever seen. It’s not only fantastic to watch, but there is also so much skill behind everything that they do.

2. Kenichi Ebina – Our personal favorite of the entire competition just because of what he does. He not only dances, but he incorporates a story into it and technology to boot. We have never seen anything quite like it, and his style is something that could feasibly translate into a much larger show if given the opportunity.

1. Forte – In the end, we’re basing these rankings with past history in mind … and America loves singers. These guys are great at that, and will probably go on to do some pretty big things around the world regardless of if they win or not. This is the closest to a sure thing to be in the finale that is on this list, and it’s with that in mind that we place them here.