TOO MUCH: “America’s Got Talent” is a mess with Howard Stern drowning out Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel (inset, l-r). (
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There’s no doubt that America has got talent — a huge, vast, unending stream of talented people who do amazingly entertaining things.
Too bad we no longer have a stage in which to showcase it all.
“America’s Got Talent” sure ain’t it anymore — not since “AGT” went live, at any rate.
It was immediately clear and incredibly upsetting Monday night to see that this great show had, in its move to Jersey, morphed from a wondrous venue where the talent shone above all else to a cheesy, overproduced mess designed to showcase the horrible stage set and the talent of one judge.
Why did this happen? Worse, how could this happen?
It happened because instead of learning from the disappointing, over-produced “X Factor” mess, that same producer and his partners decided to ape it. They cloned their mistake.
What? NBC couldn’t be lame enough to let a producer who’d already made cheese from caviar have his way on another show, could it? Yes.
Simon Cowell, the very person who created “The X Factor” and “America’s Got Talent,” a fail-proof show, must have a secret need to fail through flamboyance. Like the Giants, “AGT” plays in New Jersey and claim they’re in New York. Showing Times Square didn’t make it New York, either. Hell, even Times Square looks tasteful compared to the “AGT” stage. In fact, Las Vegas looks tasteful next to “AGT.”
The minute it went live on Monday night, things went downhill. Producers shifted the focus from the showcasing of talent to the showcasing of over-blown stage sets that overwhelmed anything on them — while simultaneously promoting one self-aggrandizing judge to the detriment of the talent, the other judges and the show itself.
How did that work?
I’m glad you asked. “AGT” lost one million viewers in one night.
We’re there to see the talent — not to try to find them on the hideous, lights-flashing, stage-revolving, laser-shooting set — nor to attempt to hear them over an audience constantly screaming like it’s the last minute of the Super Bowl.
No wonder they film this thing in New Jersey. It looks like it was designed by New Jersey “Housewives” star Teresa Giudice and packed with loud-mouthed, “Jersey Shore” Snookis.
Loud, tacky, ugly, tasteless and over-the-top. Worse, they’ve let Howard Stern out of the cage instead of keeping him at bay. Bringing Stern aboard was supposed to bring his fans on board, too. And maybe it has, but it’s also what’s making others fly off the rails like a BMX extreme bike act gone bad.
Look, Stern’s a very funny guy — but TV is not radio, and monologues are for radio hosts and Jay Leno. Self-aggrandizing should be left to no-talent contestants during auditions. Meantime, Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne, who are great judges, look alternately annoyed and exasperated. Well, they actually look like the rest of us feel.
Finally, what the hell have they done with Nick Cannon? Has he had a fashion lobotomy? The best-dressed man on TV now looks like a crazed carnival barker — squirting flower and all.
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to hate my favorite show. .