Reality Roll Call

Congratulations to the winner of this season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, car salesman turned opera singer, Neal E. Boyd.

Boyd, who previously had to halt his singing career due to a serious vocal infection, is the winner of a million dollars, and will be headlining in Vegas. The Missouri native is a graduate of both the Unversity of Missouri - Columbia, and Missouri State University, and has studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He is nicknamed the Voice of Missouri, not only for his musical talents, but for his commitment to his home state. He has sung for the past three sitting governors of Missouri, and also commissioned for the Missouri Workforce Investment Board.

To read more about Boyd, and to listen to his work, click the link below.

Neal E. Boyd

On Friday, October 17^th, America’s Got Talent Live will debut at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, featuring the dynamic top five competitors from season three of the show; the program’s winner, crowned at the show’s October 1^st finale, is set to headline. This exciting night of entertainment, promoted by AEG Live, will feature host Jerry Springer and a special guest performance from Terry Fator, the multi-talented winner of season two, as well as several more of the show’s hottest stars, in addition to the Top 5 finalists, to be announced shortly.

The show’s top five performers, set to take the stage in Las Vegas, include Neal E. Boyd, an opera singer from Silkeston, MO; Nuttin But Strings, a hip-hop violin duo comprised of brothers Damien and Tourie Escobar from Jamaica Queens, NY; Queen Emily, a soul singer from Stockton, CA; Donald Braswell, a singer from San Antonio, TX; and Eli Mattson, a 26-year-old pianist-singer from Chicago, IL.

Take that, Tom from MySpace! Actor, singer and America’s Got Talent judge David Hasselhoff was a little hassled at the way MySpace operates and he has started his own social network on his website, DavidHasselhoff.com. Here is the note on his MySpace page:

Hi Guys! I have started my own social network and website. HoffSpace, located at www.davidhasselhoff.com. This is my new and official home. I won’t be interacting much more on MySpace, so come on over and join the fun on HoffSpace. It’s fun and safe. Peace,

David

At this point, there are over 12,000 people at HOFFSPACE, a much lower number that the over 600,000 friends he has on MySpace, but that’s not the point. To me, the point is that everyone knows that MySpace is like a restaurant that is too popular for it’s own good. It’s always crowded, it’s too noisy, service is slow, and you’re never quite sure if you’re going to catch a virus because you went there. I’m glad to see that people who have enough money to offer a better social site to their fans are doing it. This is a smart move.

It’s come down to the Top 40 on tomorrow’s America’s Got Talent. The contestants who have made it through the past seven episodes now have to convince the judges to put them throught to the Top 40. Have a favorite you’re rooting for? Then don’t forget to watch America’s Got Talent tomorrow night at 9:30 on NBC.

The thing about America’s Got Talent is that between the really bad acts and the really good perfomers, there’s something I like to call “WTF? entertainment.”  That is the stuff I like just because it’s goofy. The ZOOperstars fall into that category:

Check out America’s Got Talent on Tuesday’s at 9 PM on NBC

Sonja Norwood, mother of R&B singer Brandy and her sex-tape star brother Ray J, will being seeing The Kardashians in court in February.

Norwood is suing Kim and all her siblings for allegedly racking up over $120,000 in authorized charges on her credit card back when Kim worked as her personal assistant and Ray J’s co-star in 2006 and 2007. For the record, the Kardashians vehemently deny the charges. The case goes to court February 9, 2009.

Brandy was last seen as a judge on America’s Got Talent, Kim and her family can been seen every week on the reality show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians on E! Ray J can be seen sitting at home, watching his sex tape, and wondering why it didn’t revive his career.

Former X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne does not think much of reality shows. She was recently quoted as saying that they are all “train wrecks” and that, “All of it now is a lot of lower-rung celebrities that they’ve turned into bad actors. None of it is real.”

Osbourne became well known in America as the wife of rocker Ozzy Obsourne in the MTV reality show, The Osbournes. She can be seen this summer on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, and will be starring in the VH1 reality show, Rock of Love Girls: Charm School.

Before we had American Idol, where we spend weeks at the start of each season being amused by the no-talents and crazies who don’t make the cut, and long before the wacky talents aired every summer on America’s Got Talent, there was the grand daddy of them all: The Gong Show.

Hosted by Chuck Barris, the Gong Show had a few talented people hoping for a good rating, interspersed between strange and horrible acts performed by sometimes marginal people. And just for pure entertainment purposes they threw in regulars like The Unknown Comic, who told corny jokes in a cheesy suit, with a bag over his head, and Gene Gene the Dancing Machine:

Comedy Central will be reviving The Gong Show, and updating it for the 21st Century, with Dave Attell as the host. The show will debut on July 17.