Last night’s semifinal episode was a somewhat lackluster affair: anomalies like Tone the Chiefrocca and Angela Hoover had minimal promise to begin with, talented acts like Jonathan Allen and Red Panda faltered, and that cute magic kid wrote himself into the world’s most confusing dating show. Forte, ever the triumphant closer, is the only act that I’d put any real money on advancing — the others are all in varying degrees of jeopardy tonight.

Our live blog starts now:

Ah yes, One Direction performs tonight. So, look forward to that.

We have a little bit of revisionist history now, as Heidi declares last night to be a great night. I kind of wonder to what extent the judges believe this stuff, and to what extent it’s all part of the job.

Our first unrelated performance of the evening comes courtesy of Cassadee Pope, winner of NBC’s own The Voice — gosh, I hope this wasn’t part of the prize package, that’d be pretty weak. Joking aside, she offers some savvy advice to the contestants: however serious the competition seems now, this a great launching point for whatever career they want to make. I hope Jonathan was listening.

From there, we have some results:

Eliminated:

Tone the Chiefrocca

Red Panda

Innovative Force advances to the Top 12

Eliminated:

Duo Resonance

Jonathan Allen

Forte advances to the Top 12

Forte is no surprise, but the whole Jonathan Allen thing is a little bit of a bummer. He took a gamble and lost on it; here’s hoping he finds success outside the competition.

Collins Key advances to the Top 12

Ha. Apparently that girl last night had a boyfriend, so it was even more awkward than it looked.

Eliminated:

Angela Hoover

Taylor Williamson advances to the Top 12

I’m glad that’s the way it panned out. I also find the fact that he’s acquired a legion of fawning female fans strangely encouraging.

Before we get to the final results, it’s time for a performance from One Direction, singing about how they danced all night to “A Day in the Life,” the haunting final track of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Not sure what else the “best song ever” would be referring to.

We then have our final wildcard pick, courtesy Howard Stern.

Howard advances Leon and Romy to the Top 12

Who?

We then have some more results:

Cami Bradley advances to the Top 12

I’m a little relieved that it doesn’t come down to the direct Cami vs. Dave showdown I was hyping last night, as I rather suspect I’d have had to eat my words if I had.

That leaves Catapult and Dave in the bottom two.

Mel B. chooses Dave Fenley

Howard chooses Catapult

Heidi chooses Catapult

Howie chooses Catapult

That does it for Dave then. I do hope Catapult heeds Howie’s advice about simplicity, that really is where they shine.

Twelve more acts perform on Tuesday, with another four advancing — tune in to NBC at 9/8c.

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(Image courtesy of NBC)



Ted Kindig

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV