‘America’s Got Talent’ rankings: Where Emily West, Mike Super, Miguel Dakota stand in top 12
“America’s Got Talent” has reached the top 12, and what a group of contestants this is! We’d say that there is no slam-dunk champion right now as in some past seasons, and the irony here is that some of the runner-ups this season are more likely to be successful than the winner down the road. (We’ll have a little more on that later.)
For now, let’s just get to ranking the remaining 12 acts in contention, and we’re going to do so on the basis of performance quality, screen time, and how these acts have done on other seasons of the show. There is something to be learned from that!
12. Mara Justine – Being a kid singer always helps to go far in the competition, and this (plus the Snapple Save) serve as the main reasons that Mara is still here right now. No offense to her, since she does seem like a very nice kid, but we just can’t see her stacking up with this level of competition.
11. Christian Stoinev – We feel almost bad for Christian, who was universally praised for the dog, so he of course ran with that for so long that the judges claimed that he used the dog too much. There’s just too much competition in here for him.
10. David and Leeman – This has been a great year for magic on the show, but the problem for these guys is that while they’re the funniest of the magic acts remaining, they are also the ones with the simplest tricks. They really need to blow us away.
9. AcroArmy – A great act, but they have the enormous and somewhat-unfair challenge of having to come up with a new routine in a week. We feel like most of their tricks will end up blending together, and America will forget about voting for them.
8. Emil & Dariel – They should really be happy with eighth place at this point, since they’ve accomplished a ton for a string duo on this show, and they are very good at what they do. There’s just too much competition ahead, especially from popular acts.
7. Blue Journey – There needs to be more content in here! There are a few acts that we’re bunching up here that we consider to be by and large toss-ups, since they could all go either way depending on what they do on the stage. Right now, they’re on the outside looking in.
6. Mike Super – Mike is honestly our favorite act this season. He’s the most creative magician “America’s Got Talent” has ever seen, but why we worry is because he was eliminated once before. He’s not opposed to doing big, grandiose tricks, and he’ll need one this week to stay alive.
5. Quintavious Johnson – Looking at the remaining contestants is where things really start to get crazy for us. Every person remaining carries with them a unique set of advantages and disadvantages. For Quntavious, he has to figure out how to top himself, and he’s already done so many big ballads that it will be touhg.
4. Mat Franco – A magic act has never won “America’s Got Talent.” The furthest any one of them has made is the top 10. The reason Mat has a great shot is because all of his tricks have been amazing, he’s got a good voting record, and he’s got a look that is hip and current.
3. Miguel Dakota – Miguel could be buried early in the show and it wouldn’t shock us, but he is everything that voters love: A guy with a guitar and a touching story about trying to make his dream come true. It’s been a few seasons now since a singer won, so we don’t put this past America.
2. Sons of Serendip – We feel almost sure that the Sons will be in the finals. Whether or not they win may strictly come down to song choice. They combine something that America loves (singing) and then add to it musicianship and a set of instruments we often don’t see together.
1. Emily West – A controversial pick perhaps to be #1, but we look at it this way: She’s been heavily promoted by the show, has a few incredible performances, and sooner or later, you know that “America’s got Talent” is going to point out just long it has been since a woman won this competition. (Think all the way back to season 1!) It feels like it’s time, and we would not be bummed with an Emily win, and we say that is someone who suffers from singing-show fatigues.
Photo: NBC