Recap - Agt Season 4 Finale - Who Won?
By: Edward Ganges
Original Article
for RealityTVMatrix.com

Welcome to the season finale of America's Got Talent - live from Hollywood.


After taking a night off, the finale kicks off with the prerequisite long-winded introductions and promises to deliver two hours of great fun and excitement before eventually crowning the winner.

FirstT off is the recap of the 10 finalists including Recycled Percussion, Lawrence Bement, Kevin Skinner, Grandma Lee, the Fab Five, Drew Stevens, The Texas tenors, Hairo Torres, Voices of Glory and Barbara Padilla. Next the judges come out all wearing black. Sharon Osbourne is looking especially radiant, or I should say as beautiful as usual. The half is wearing his trademark fedora and Piers is just Piers. David felt Hoff-ful, promised to lay Hoff the Hoffisms and then rambled on about being on the porch and grandma Lee etc. etc.

Selma Houston performs the massive Motown hit "don't leave me this Way" introduced by, backed up by, and surrounded by the top 10 finalists. Oddly enough the performances really good it starts with The Texas Tenors and Barbara Padilla is follow by Voices of Glory and Lawrence Beaman and an introduction of miss someone Houston by Grandma Lee. Next, Ms. Houston is joined by Kevin Skinner then Drew Stevens and ups the ante with a quick duet with Lawrence Beaman whose voice is as deep and amazing as usual. The Fab five clog their way out the curtains open and we see recycled percussion doing band work and out roles Hairo Torres. Teasers for what's coming up later include Rascal Flats and Susan Boyle and Shakira.

surprise, surprise: and now we are treated to a presentation by Leona Lewis. A better blogger would probably look up what song it is you with singing, but that's just not me. What I will tell you though is that it was sung beautifully she looked fantastic her dress was awesome and my wife didn't like her hair. I think the song was "so what if it hurts me" but don't quote me on that. I really liked her eyes and of course I really liked her voice.

And now for recap of amazing moments including well honestly just highlighting the bad and the really bad. Oddly enough horribly bad talent is always and forever hardly bad talent. The thing I like most about reality television is that train wreck doesn't begin to describe how bad some of these people are. It hurts me to look at some of the stuff; however, as bad as the recap is, to our surprise all of this talent comes back for a combination performance which is "drastically" bad. To say that "words cannot describe how bad this is" would be an understatement: suffice to say that my mouth is hanging open in absolute disbelief. On the plus side, it was presented and as a Vegas quality attempt at a show - which is actually even scarier. These guys are really, really bad. Oh, and Piers and Grandma Lee magically appeared in a tuxedo and wedding gown as husband and wife. How cute is that?

Next up is Cirque du Soleil doing "Banana Shpeel" which includes singing, dancing, slapstick, tap dancing and very glittery costumes. Is it me or is it that if you've seen one tap dance routine you've seen them all? Either way, Broadway routines can be very self-indulgent.

Another quick recap of the highs and lows of the season reminds us of the inspirational power of the show and as the Hoff likes to exclaim and as the montage of images supports "America's got talent".

54 minutes in and it is time to start eliminating some of the finalists from the competition. First up is Hairo Torres and Barbara Padilla. Now, unless some kind of miracle happens and everybody on the Internet is completely wrong Hairo goes home and Barbara stays for a later stage of the eliminations. So we were all correct and Barbara moves forward. Best wishes always to Hairo. Next is Lawrence Beaman versus The Voices of Glory. To my utter amazement, shock, chagrin and disappointment: The Voices of Glory move forward into the top five. Next is The Texas Tenors versus the Fab Five. Giving me one back, The Texas Tenors move forward into the top five. Wow, in a beautifully orchestrated head-to-head we get Kevin Skinner versus Drew Stevens. Prediction: Kevin Skinner. And the winner is... Kevin Skinner. That of course leaves us with Grandma Lee Versus Recycled Percussion. As is the beauty Of America's Got Talent you couldn't get two more different acts. One stays, and one goes home. And the act moving one step closer to the $1 million prize is... Recycled Percussion To Spite the Chance of the Crowd for Grandma Lee. And all of that without a commercial interruption.

and a quick recap of the judges behaving badly (and by badly we mean goofily). And yes, Sharon is a total guy hound when it comes to guys taking off their shirts. And of course David is totally Hoff the hook - and I will spare you all of the Hoff quotes.

At approximately one hour and five minutes into the show Shakira takes the stage wearing skin tight black on black and four or 5 inch heels and is looking absolutely fantastic. As with the best beautiful women -- wait, are those leather panties over her black stockings? -- , as I was saying as with most beautiful women she is definitely getting better with age - all of the baby fat is gone and there is nothing left except Shakira. Shakira's advice to aspiring artists he is "believing in yourself and hard work."

We are back from the break and it is time for 3 more of the contestants to leave the competition. Warning: this goes fast. Leaving us in fifth place is The Voices Of Glory. Sharon assures them that they have so much more ahead of them. Leaving us in fourth place is The Texas Tenors. I'm really going to miss these guys; I could totally see their billboard up in lights in Vegas. Now my jaw drops open: the act finishing in third place is Recycled Percussion. Barbara Padilla's mouth drops open to match my own. With the way the eliminations have been going so fa