Singers dominated this competition the first six seasons but the past two seasons, non-singers have taken the prize: a dog act in 2012, then a cool dancer/gymnast dude last year.
And tonight, for the very first time, a magician takes home the $1 million. And since "AGT" likes to find Vegas acts, Mat Franco fits perfectly. His close-up work was incredible and his charm indelible, his writing impeccable. He has enough personality and creativity to fill a decent-sized theater in Vegas. Although I wasn't impressed with his final magic act, the voters clearly found him worthy.
He beat a fine singer Emily Rose, who I (incorrectly) predicted would win.
I was way off in my predictions about Franco. I thought he would finish fifth.
The collective wisdom of my readers were far better at predictions than me, getting four out of six slots correct, including the top 3. Franco just barely edged out Rose in the poll 26.71% to 25.57%. Acro Army pulled in 18.4% of the vote and came in third, just like the actual final vote. The only difference was greater support among my reader for Quintavious, who came in fourth with 16.78% of the vote. Sons of Serendip was fifth in the poll (and fourth in the actual results) with 8.79% of the vote. Dakota received a mere 3.75%, a distant sixth.
Here's how I read the situation. I only got one ranking correct so boo to me:
6. Miguel Dakota. He was the weakest of the top 6, no doubt but I predicted he would finish fourth only because I thought he had the teen vote. Maybe there weren't a lot of teen voters.
5. Quintavious Johnson. I let my own bias for this really talented kid cloud my judgment. I thought he deserved a higher ranking but alas, he here is in fifth place. I had predicted he would finish second.
4. Sons of Serendip. I liked them but thought they were too low key to garner more votes than Quintavious. I had predicted they would finish sixth.
3. Acro Army. I got this one right. I figured this dance group wasn't going to win but they did finish strong thanks to a final act full of "wow" gymnastic moments.
2. Emily Rose. I thought she would win this. She is the type of traditional singer that "AGT" voters love. And they did love her. But not as much as...
1. Mat Franco! As I noted before, he is charming, smart and great at his craft. I thought he would only finish fifth, proving I'm a dope at predictions.
The blogger at MJ's big blog did a better job than me, getting the 6th through 4th right, then punting on who would win, unsure which of the top 3 would take it home.
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