SANDY COHEN, AP Entertainment Writer
A 75-year-old comedian, five tap-dancing sisters, a contorting breakdancer and a drum quartet will face off against six vocal acts during the final competition on “America’s Got Talent.”
Viewers chose the 10 finalists through phone, e-mail and text message votes. Judges Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff forfeited their weekly “judges’ pick” during the semifinals and allowed the top vote-getters to proceed to the final showdown.
Variety is the hallmark of the vocal finalists: There’s an opera singer, three harmonizing cowboys, two singer-guitarists, a smooth baritone and a trio of singing siblings.
Morgan deemed opera singer Barbara Padilla of Houston “the red-hot favorite” to win the show’s $1 million price and chance to headline a Las Vegas show.
The Voices of Glory, two brothers and a sister from Highland, N.Y., tend toward gospel material. Kevin Skinner, a chicken farmer from Mayfield, Ky., has been playing guitar since he was a kid – mostly on his porch.
Drew Stevyns, of Sykesville, Md., is self-taught on guitar, though he has studied music since he was 5 years old. Hasselhoff picked the Texas Tenors, a trio of cowboy-hat-wearing men from Houston, as “the front-runner to win this competition.”