America's Got Talent determined its first three seventh-season finals acts during Wednesday night's live broadcast of the NBC reality talent competition series.
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William Close, a musician and inventor from Los Angeles, CA, and Tom Cotter, a standup comedian from Stoney Point, NY, were revealed to have finished as the Top 2 vote-getters after Tuesday night's performance show which featured 12 of the season's 24 semifinalist acts performing for home viewer votes, automatically earning them a spot in the finals.
America's Got Talent host Nick Cannon also revealed that gothic self-trained opera singer Andrew De Leon, competitive dance group Academy of Villains, 16-year-old singer and musician Bria Kelly, magician and mind reader Eric Dittelman, dancer and performance artist Turf, acrobalance act Donovan and Rebecca, 12-year-old singer Edon, and pop-locking brothers The Scott Brothers had received the eight lowest home viewer vote totals from the performance show and would not be advancing.
The announcements then left America's Got Talent judges Howard Stern, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel with the task of deciding which of the two acts that had received the third and fourth highest vote totals -- Todd Oliver, a ventriloquist and dog act from Branson, MO, or Joe Castillo, a sand story artist from Lexington, KY -- should become the third act to advance to the finals.
Howard voted to send Todd Oliver through to the next round, and then Sharon voted for Joe Castillo to advance. As a result, Howie became the tie-breaker vote and decided to allow Joe Castillo to move forward in the competition.
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America's Got Talent's next seventh-season semifinals round will air on Tuesday, September 4 and feature the remaining set of 12 semifinalist acts each performing for a spot in the finals.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski