‘America’s Got Talent’ rankings: Freckled Sky, Arielle Baril, Craig Lewis Band lead going into live show #2

The second live show for “America’s Got Talent” is coming to NBC Tuesday, and with that we’re back once again with our list of contestant rankings! We’re basing these on a criteria of a number of different things, including performance quality, screen time, and of course voting history for similar acts in the past.

Given that we’ve only seen so much of these performers, these have at times been somewhat hard to predict. Heck, we put Paul Zerdin in last place last week just because we didn’t like the creepy baby puppet. Then, he came out with something different and was amazing.

12. Ira – It’s really a surprise that Ira made it this far to begin with. It is mildly funny, and the under-reported story here is probably that the puppeteer is actually a pretty good singer! Still, we don’t know what else you do with a puppet in love with Mel B.

11. Uzeyer Novruzov – Cool act, but typically circus performers don’t fare well in the live shows. One mistake can ruin everything, and even a flawless performance sometimes still does not mean good reviews from the voting public.

10. Damone Rippy – This was a pretty cool water act when we first saw it, but for some reason we feel like watching these sort of performances are a little awkward when you don’t see them in the studio. The show has not really figured out these acts just yet.

9. DM Nation – We’d be silly to ever completely write out a dance act, since typically they’ve got the skills necessarily to really come out and deliver an excellent performance. DM Nation is great at what they do; we just cannot remember anything that made them stand out over past acts.

8. 3 Shades of Blue – Bands are such a tossup on this show. The judges even change their opinions about them in a split second. It’s just hard to have that much confidence in them right now thanks to seeing the field.

7. Derek Hughes – Given that Piff the Magic Dragon is coming off of a pretty ho-hum performance this past week, Derek has a chance to rise up the AGT magician power rankings.

6. Sharon Irving – She’s a great singer and she got a golden buzzer! Why so low? There are so many singing-related acts this time, and some are bound to cancel one another out.

5. Animation Crew – When looking at dance crews, we’re always going to go with the one with the interesting twist over the more typical crew for this show. If the Animation Crew brings their A-game, they’ll have a chance to advance.

4. Myq Kaplan – This round a little heavy on the singers, but at a certain point we can see some of them canceling each other out. Given that Myq is a brilliantly-funny comedian with a fan base already, he has a very good chance of making it to the next round, even if he hasn’t had the biggest amount of screen time this season.

3. Craig Lewis Band – They blew both Michael Buble and us away on their last performance, and thanks to that we’re going to see them have a good chance at going far. If they match their last performance, it’s a lock.

2. Arielle Baril – There are actually many acts we could envision in this spot, but we’re going with the opera singer just because it’s a safe choice. So long as she delivers a solid performance, there’s a good chance that she gets the votes to make it through.

1. Freckled Sky – There’s no real question to us about this. Howard Stern’s golden buzzer act was emotional, visual stunning, and different. These are three things that viewers of this show are particularly looking for at this point.

Now, the power turns to you: Vote for your favorite in the poll below!

If you want to get some other news right now when it comes to “America’s Got Talent,” head over here to see the results from this past show! Also, you can sign up here to get some further TV scoop on just about everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)