After just seven episodes, the “America’s Got Talent: The Champions” ends with the results finale on February 18 that will see the first winner crowned. Over the course of five audition episodes, 50 acts — including five winners from the “Got Talent” franchises in America and Britain as well as eight others from around the world — performed. They were vying for one of 12 places in the final, which aired on Feb. 10.
There were three ways to make the Top 12: be the Golden Buzzer pick of one of the four judges or new host Terry Crews; win the most votes in each episode from the superfans, a select group of “AGT” viewers from the across the country who were flown to LA for the tapings last fall; or be one of the two wild cards chosen by the producers.
The five acts singled out for the Golden Buzzer were: singers Susan Boyle, Angelica Hale and Kechi Okwuchi; daredevils Deadly Games; and sand artist Kseniya Simonova.
The five acts who won the superfans vote run-offs were: singers Brian Justin Crum, Paul Potts and Cristina Ramos; stand-up comedian Preacher Lawson and magician Shin Lim.
The two wildcards were ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer, who won “AGT” in 2017, and magician Jon Dorenbos. In the final, they faced off against the two acts who got more votes from the superfans. edged them out with the superfans. Farmer was bested by Ramos, the rock opera singer who won “Spain’s Got Talent” in 2016 And Dorenbos was edged out by opera singer Potts, who won “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2007.
Follow along with our updating live blog recap.
SEE ‘America’s Got Talent: The Champions’: Superfans decided the winner months ago
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8:02 p.m. – During the recap of last week’s performance episode we saw the judges and other champions gush over Angelica’s opening number and thirst over Preacher’s bare chest. Shin was impressed by Kseniya, Preacher was shook by Darci Lynne and Mel showed off her talent for power napping. Heidi could not believe Jon’s magic trick that spanned across seasons and everyone thought Shin contributed to one of the best finals in series history. And singers Brian Justin, Kechi, Paul, Cristina and Susan all made their talent seem effortless.
8:11 p.m. – Before giving us the name of the ultimate champion, Terry promised a night of duets and talent mash-ups to celebrate and honor the series. I’m hoping they slowly narrow down the field of finalists as the show goes on like they do on normal seasons!
8:13 p.m. – Preacher did his best to find a partner to duet with on stage, but his attempts to try the talents of Deadly Games, Darci Lynne, Shin and Paul all failed miserably, but who knew throwing knives and singing the ABCs with a sock puppet could be both sexy and funny?!
8:18 p.m. – The first true duet of the night was Voices of Hope children’s choir from last season of AGT and Tokio Myers, one of the champion acts that didn’t make the finals. The combination of the choir harmonies and Tokio’s instrumentation was really fun and a great kick off to this concept of mashing up different talents. I love this idea!
8:28 p.m. – The next special performance of the night was from The Clairvoyants. For their “Games of Chance” trick they had Terry shoot a canon of balls in to the audience with only four of the balls having the names of the four judges. The four audience members that caught the judges’ balls brought them up along with an envelope with a picture in it that each audience member had already had. Only four people had envelopes with pictures of the judges inside them. Terry randomly chose Howie out of the four judges–and though Simon, Heidi and Mel’s envelopes brought to them by the people who caught their balls did have their own photos inside, the one brought to Howie did not. Instead, the reveal was that the hot air balloon photo inside Howie’s envelope was actually predicted because The Clairvoyants had a painting of Howie in a hot hair balloon already printed on the backside of their game sign!
8:38 p.m. – In a bit of a history lesson, we got to see footage from the pilot of “Got Talent” from years ago which Simon called awful. Luckily he was able to sell it to NBC and it changed in to what we now know of the series. We also got to hear Howie discuss his elation at getting the call to join the show and learned that Mel and Heidi both “interviewed” for the show at the same time and Heidi was bummed when she heard they had cast Mel until they called her later and said that they wanted her as a fourth judge. Simon’s ultimate vision for the show was that there would be no rules–no age limit or scope of talent, but that anyone could come on and display their talent for a chance to win.
8:42 p.m. – Jackie Evancho returned to the stage for an encore performance after failing to make the list of finalists and to promote her new album “The Debut.”
8:52 p.m. – In celebration of their 25th anniversary in Vegas, Cirque du Soleil stopped by for a performance from their current show “Mystere.”
9:01 p.m. – The next mash-up was a singing duet of “The Show Must Go On” between Cristina and Brian Justin while Deadly Games performed one of their danger acts. The intensity of the song was perfect to accompany the knife-throwing act. It was particularly great hearing Brian Justin sing something so edgy and dramatic!
9:11 p.m. – Terry’s co-star from “Brooklyn Nine Nine” Melissa Frumero joined Shin on stage for one of his card tricks. In the trick he managed to switch cards with her–the queen of diamonds was in her mouth and the two of hearts was in his mouth–without a single sign of how. He also made her card of choice (again the queen of diamonds) appear in a photo that he took of her holding a blank card! I honestly just do not understand how he does any of these things. Amazing.
9:21 p.m. – Rowlf the Dog from “The Muppets” appeared on stage with Darci Lynne and her puppet Edna–you know the one that’s in love with Simon! The three performed an ode to Simon and Edna’s lost love for him.
9:30 p.m. – Before delivering the first set of results all of the finalists got to watch footage from their very first audition for the shows. It was an emotional moment for all of them because none of them thought that the show would bring them to where they are in their lives now, forever changed.
9:32 p.m. – With all 12 acts on stage Terry brought forward Brian Justin Crum, Kechi and Cristina Ramos. Based on the votes of the superfans from the 50 states, the first act to advance to the top 5 (from those three) was Cristina! That meant that both Brian and Kechi were “eliminated” and would not be the ultimate champion.
9:35 p.m. – Next Terry brought Jon Dorenbos, Darci Lynne Farmer and Susan Boyle forward. From those three only Darci Lynn advanced! That means her wild card spot paid off, but how shook are we that both Jon and Susan were eliminated in the process?!
9:36 p.m. – The next group included Paul Potts, Angelica Hale and Preacher Lawson. From those three it was…
9:41 p.m. – … Preacher! Another showdown between Preacher and Darci Lynne?!
9:42 p.m. – So that left Kseniya Simonova, Deadly Games and Shin Lim with only two spots remaining in the top 5. The first act to move on was Kseniya and the second was Shin!
9:44 p.m. – Out of the top 5, the act that finished in fifth place was stand up comic Preacher Lawson. Ugh, I wanted him to win! But he got the opportunity to show off so much of his talent both in his traditional act as well as tonight in his acted out comedy bits. Give this guy a sitcom!
9:46 p.m. – And in fourth place it was singer Cristina Ramos. The Spanish singer was proud and grateful for her opportunity to be on the American stage and Heidi thanked her for bringing her talent back to the show.
9:48 p.m. – And in third place it was sand artist Kseniya Simonova. She was Terry’s Golden Buzzer act this time around and her two performances were among the best this season saw!
9:50 p.m. – That meant it was down to the two juggernaut in AGT history, Darci Lynn and Shin. They’re both hugely talented at what they do and have been incredible winners from recent seasons. Between the two which is your favorite?
9:57 p.m. – Based on the votes of the superfans the winner of Champions is… Shin Lim! That makes it back to back wins for Shin after he was crowned the winner just last season and now this. Wow. I really thought it would go to Darci Lynne, but instead she takes second place! Did the superfans make the right decision? In what way would you have voted?
