The Kara DioGuardi Award- Worst Reality Personality

Named For: Kare DioGuardi (American Idol)
Awarded To: The reality competition personality you love to hate
No Previous Awards

Place. Nominee (Series) Points (My Vote)

5. James Oseland (Top Chef) 4 points

4. Jeff Probst (Survivor) 5 points (3rd)

3. Jennifer Lopez (American Idol) 8 points (1st)

2. Randy Jackson (American Idol) 10 points

and the Poolie goes to...

1. Nick Cannon (America's Got Talent) 11 points (2nd)

This is Nick Cannon's first Poolie nomination, and first win for the new worst reality personality award.

I am not watching the current season of America's Got Talent and Nick Cannon is one of the many reasons for that.  Sure I hate Howie, and Sharon, and Piers as much as the next guy, and but Nick takes the cake for being terrible.  Every time he would feign excitement at another one of AGT's terrible contestants, I wanted to slap him across the face.  Thank you Nick Cannon, for giving me time to watch other shows this summer.

America's Not Talent(ed)

I will not be watching America's Got Talent next summer. Once last night's results show cut the field down to five, I said "If this chicken catcher wins I'm not watching next season." Sure enough they knocked people off one by one until this no talent, sob story of a country singer, Kevin Skinner, won a million dollars for being unemployed and having a country twang.

I am sorry, but if this guy tried out for American Idol he wouldn't make it past the first audition. Not only is he not any good, but in this week's final, he was even worse. As Piers said in his judging of the chicken catcher, he was "flat and missed a few notes." He was easily the worst of the five singing acts in the finals. Skinner sang an iconic song, Aerosmith's 'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing', a song done on this show and American Idol and probably every other singing competition out there, and it was the worst version I've heard yet. Even worse than Idol's Joshua Gracin of season two shame.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't like Barbara Padilla either, who finished second to the country bumpkin. But at least she was good at what she did. I may not enjoy her high pitched opera singing, but it was a good talent. Skinner was just plain awful.

That is the difference between Talent and Idol. Although America votes in both, the producers and judges of Idol are promoting the singers that they think will go on to have the best careers to keep the show relevant. In Talent, they are promoting the contestants with a little bit of talent, a heartfelt storyline, and a relateability to the audience. This is because they know that no one (other than the FANTASTIC Terry Fator) from this show is going to go on to have a career, so they need to get the most bang for their buck while they're still on the air.

Case and point:

Three out of the top five acts...

1. Kevin Skinner- unemployed chicken catcher with a family to support.

2. Barbara Padilla- cancer survivor.

5. Voice of Glory- three kids that sing for their mother, who recently came out of a coma.

Of course you had...

3. Recycled Percussion

4. Texas Tenors (right)

...that were just flat out good. Miles better than the top two acts, but didn't have the story for America to grab on to.

If you want to win a million dollars, have a tramatic event happen to you and then try out for America's Got Talent with some minor ability. You're golden. See you in two years Hoff, if the show is still on the air.

America's Got Talent

America's Got Talent has been going on all summer long and next Wednesday is the finale where the winner will be crowned. The champion of AGT receives $1 million and one performance at the MGM Grande in Las Vegas. There is absolutely no one on this year's show that comes close to how good Terry Fator was last season. But of the five people left, I'd say that I would pay $50 to go watch Nuttin' But Stringz perform in the Vegas. Eli Mattson (Mike Downing of Gorham track fame) has a great sound and I would definitely download his tracks, but would not spend money on going to one of his concerts at this point. Donald Braswell and Neil E. Boyd both have terrific voices and should get jobs on Broadway and in the Oprah, respectively. Queen Emily is God awful at singing, but very good at yelling and screaming. Since their first audition I said Nuttin' But Stringz, two black kids from inner city New York, would be my favorite and have a great chance of winning. They attend Juliard and compose all of their own material that they perform on the show with their violins.

Here is my favorite performance by Nuttin' But Stringz...


And here is my favorite from Mike Downing...