‘America’s Got Talent’ rankings: Why KriStef Brothers, Cami Bradley, Forte have solid shot

This week, the start of the “America’s Got Talent” semifinals begin, where all of the remaining acts will have an opportunity to impress the judges and America once again try to make it into the final round … and hopefully be the first winner of the show since Terry Fator that people are going to actually care about.

There were only ten acts announced for tonight’s show during Wednesday night’s episode, so we are going to rank solely based on them for the time being. Performance quality is the biggest key here, but we’re also judging somewhat based on past voting results. (Those that needed the judges to help them get this far are of course going to be in more danger.)

10. Tone the Chiefrocca – “BOOTY” was a fun thing to sing about the first two times that we saw it (plus about the 20 times that we’ve seen it on YouTube), but getting more of it at this point is probably not going to go over well. Howard Stern seems to be over the novelty and will probably buzz them, which goes against the campy fun that this song brings to the world. It’s not great, but it will at least be entertaining.

9. Angela Hoover – She’s a nice lady, but we really don’t think she is that incredible when it comes to impressions, and her material is not amazing. This will be the end of her ride, unless she really has something left in the tank that we have yet to see.

8. Innovative Force – Very talented group of young people, and their last performance was a revelation after we wrote them off due to their terrible name. Sadly, we still don’t think that they will advance in this singer-favored field.

7. Taylor Williamson – He’s simply too polarizing as a comic, and Angela being there hurts his audience more. While we love him and have since the days of “Last Comic Standing,” we and the votes of a few do not compensate for the opinions of many.

6. Duo Resonance – Did a great job in their last performance, but they suffer from what is going to be a very familiar problem on this show: Being up against very similar competition. We imagine that the humor of the brothers is going to be able to take over what they do on an emotional level.

5. Jonathan Allen – Very good opera singer with a touching story. But is he better than Forte? We don’t really think so. That vocal group has more of the potential to be the sort that performs with orchestras around the country, and could end up winning the show.

4. Collins Key – He’s a talented young magician, but probably tried a little too hard last week to act like some Justin Bieber-like hip kid who does tricks. A little less talking and a little more magic is our advice if he actually wants to see the final round of the competition. He is good enough to make it happen.

3. Cami Bradley – Cami does not have a ton of screen time or the same sort of emotional story as most of the other singers on this season, but she makes up for it with her voice / artistry. Why is she on this show and not one of the other singing competitions? Maybe she tried those and missed on it, but we cannot find any records of her trying out online.

2. KriStef Brothers – Our favorite circus act ever on this show, mostly because these two guys really understand that in this day and age, going out and doing impressive feats of strength is not enough. You also need to be funny, creative, and original to compete and set yourself apart from the rest. These guys will have big careers in Las Vegas, regardless of if they advance to another round or not.

1. Forte – We still have a hard to time imagining this opera trio anywhere but the finale. As we said, they are all incredible vocalists, and they are likable enough to get votes based on personality, as well. While we are not quite sure that we really want to see a finale featuring almost all singers, these guys deserve to actually make it there.

What did you think about this lineup, and who is at the top of your ranking? If you want to read some more news, rankings, and reviews related to the show, just be sure to visit the link here.

Photo: NBC