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Piers Morgan and Howie Mandel interview, plus America's Got Talent results clips

By April MacIntyre Sep 9, 2010, 6:53 GMT

04/01/2010 - Howie Mandel - Celebrities Sighted on Hermosa Avenue in Hermosa Beach on April 1, 2010 - Hermosa Avenue - Hermosa Beach, CA, USA © Amanda Meredith / PR Photos

Are you ready for the final four acts of America’s Got Talent?

Monsters and Critics spoke with America’s Got Talent celebrity judges Howie Mandel and Piers Morgan the other day.

NBC is airing AGT this week Tuesdays and Wednesdays on NBC at 9:00, 8:00 Central and then next week next Tuesday September 14 our final four will perform at 9:00, 8:00 Central and then the finale is September 15 at 8:00, 7:00 Central. It’s a two hour finale.

Monsters and Critics: I’m curious to get your take on Michael Grimm. He’s sort of the low key guy in the very interesting lineup of finalists.

Howie Mandel: Okay well personally it’s my favorite music, he’s got my favorite - that’s the album I would buy, that’s the CD, that’s the music that I would download so he’s my favorite. He’s also very low key as you mentioned and I don’t know if that’s going to serve him, you know, against people who are a lot more splashy and memorable and talked about the next day.

He certainly is - the soul he has, and his demeanor is, he can win it. He is my favorite but, it’s hard when you juxtapose that with somebody who is, you know, dropping off three stories or blowing something up. It’s just - it’s like comparing apples and oranges and I like to say we don’t know whether America wants an apple or an orange right now.

Piers Morgan: I mean, the thing I like about Michael Grimm is that he knows what he is. He doesn’t really deviate. A lot of these people - take Taylor Mathews, he has made it too.

Taylor was this sweet, fresh faced young guy who came on stage like a sort of Justin Bieber character and everyone fell in love with him and since then he’s been slightly different to the guy we saw. He’s lost that kind of boyish charm, he has lost his smile, and he really needs to relax and get back into his skin again and be what he was when we auditioned him.
I think in Michael Grimm’s case he hasn’t changed at all. He knows what he is, he knows what he wants to be like, he knows the music he wants to play, and it’s very impressive to see that kind of consistency.

His problem is that until Jackie Evancho came along, you know, he was probably the singing favorite certainly. Now he’s got this young wonder kid and he’s got Prince Poppycock who is coming up the rails in a way that reminds me of Terry Fator when, you know, you don’t really think much about him and then suddenly you realize everyone’s talking about him and he might be a dark horse to win.

So you’ve got some great singers this year. But as Howie says, you know, what is the audience at home going to do if Fighting Gravity produce another incredible new fresh performance or if Jeremy does one of the great stunts in trick cycle history? I mean, there are lots of unanswered questions here. A lot will depend on what happens tonight.

M&C: interesting. Howie you tipped your hand. Who do you think Sharon favors in this lineup?

Howie Mandel: Well I didn’t tip my hat, I just said - I didn’t tip my hat. I just said as a singer he’s my favorite singer. I don’t know - but I can’t - is it my favorite act or do I know who will win? No.

M&C: Well you said who you like...

Howie Mandel: I don’t know who anybody - and this goes for all of us. I’m not going to speak for Piers, he’s here, but I don’t know that any of us have a, you know, could have an inkling of who could win. Anybody, it’s anybody’s game now and that’s what makes this so good. There isn’t one of these ten people that will perform tonight that can’t possibly win this.

M&C: What do you make of the strange Internet scuttlebutt that a lot of people believe that Jackie’s voice is fake?

Howie Mandel: I love that, I love this. Here’s the thing. As I said to Jackie because we had - they may show a package of this tonight. We had dinner - the judges went and had dinner with all the ten finalists and I asked her if it bothers her - because she knows about it, you know. Does it bother you that people don’t think it’s real? And I asked her to sing and does that bother you and she goes yeah it bothers me. And I said, you know, don’t let it bother you. That’s phenomenal.

It’s too good to be true, that’s what people are really saying, that it’s really too good to be true. You are so perfect and so wonderful that people have never heard a talent like this if it isn’t mechanically produced. So you are that good that people don’t think it’s real. You’ve got to take that as a compliment.

And I do even for the show. When people are buzzing about it and talking about it and there’s a controversy it’s not boring TV. Even if you don’t love that kind of music you can’t deny that is perfection.

M&C: Right. Piers, what did you make of her voice the first time you heard her?

Piers Morgan: Absolutely extraordinary. I mean, you shut your eyes and it could be a 40 year old woman. She has an extraordinary tone and pitch to her voice and a breathtaking quality and, you know, she’s a very, very rare discovery.

I mean, I was talking to Simon Cowell about it, he obviously exec produces the show and he was saying that in terms of her potential you’ve got to say that Jackie, you know, she could be a singing superstar for the next 40, 50 years. So in terms of her potential she could be one of the great if not the greatest breakout discoveries that any talent show has ever produced.

But that doesn’t mean she’s going to win because in a talent competition it can be a lot more than just about being favorite and having a great voice. And I think a lot of these acts in the final top ten have their own followings now and I know it’s going to be close. It’s going to be closer than people think.

I remember with Susan Boyle, I remember very vividly everyone saying she’s got it in the bag, it’s all over, no one can beat Susan, she had 150 million hits on YouTube by the end of the second week, and she came second. So anything can happen when the public votes.

Week 15: Results 1