Judge not, lest ye be judged

The worse thing about this show has already been duly noted by some of many other reviewers: the so-called judges.

There should be a rule, effective immediately (which means by next Wednesday), that each 'judge' cannot hit the other two 'judges' buzzers; they can hit only their own. This is a no-brainer, I mean it's obviously not fair to the contestants that the British guy (the most offensive of the three), say, can hit Brandy's buzzer if HE's decided the currently-performing act is not worthy of any further consideration. And Brandy did the same thing, when the Snow White contestant was stripping on this week's show - she found it offensive and she buzzed in and then proceeded to try desperately to hit Hasselhoff's and the British guy's buzzers, until she finally succeeded. She was still outnumbered, and Snow White's coming back, but that's not the point. This behavior is childish, rude and pathetic beyond comprehension and should not be tolerated.

That being said, the show is OK, I guess. It ain't IDOL, it's more like The Gong Show revisited (as another reviewer mentioned), with Regis thrown in for semi-credibility. Some of the contestants have been good, and one in particular has been fantastic: the 11-year-old Bianca Ryan (I think that's her name - we'll be hearing it again, undeniably), who belted out And I'm Telling You like nobody's business. I really liked how she changed the lyrics to make the song more appropriate for someone her age: instead of singing "you're the best man I've ever known," she changed it to "you're the best friend", which I thought was very classy and smart, making her rendition more than just a young kid trying to sing about things she couldn't possibly know about. Brilliant performer, can't wait to see her again.

8/2/08: So now we're already in the third season, with Brandy having been replaced by Sharon Osbourne - a major improvement - and Jerry Springer replacing Regis (not so much). Bianca Ryan went on to win Season One, which was fantastic, and last year, the person who deserved to win also took it, ventriloquist Terry Fater. This year, the auditions have finally been completed, and there are a couple of stand-outs, both female singers. Should be worth tuning in for, unless Gordon Ramsay is on a drunken rampage on the other channel.