Star Search, February 28: Semifinals Round 1

Surprise, surprise! Tonight's show was actually watchable. This was the first semi-final show, where three contestants in each category compete to move on to the finals. Because there are more performances, Arsenio and company have to be brief in their half-witted comments. It's a win-win situation: They don't look as stupid as usual and my blood pressure stays in the normal range. The expanded number of performers also means the elimination of the "up close" type segment. That being said, it also gives me less to write about. This week the most irritating thing about Arsenio was his huge diamond earrings. They were so big as to be distracting. So here goes:

The guest judge was actually two people, Nathan Morris and Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men.

In the Category of Junior Singer:

All three were strong singers. Joelle and David had similar Motown influenced styles. Victoria had more of a showy, over-singing style. It came down to a tiebreaker and David won. I'll buy that. Here are the scores:

My favorite category is always the Young Dancers. Tonight's semi-finalists were Blake, the sexually ambiguous escapee from Showgirls; Marissa, the nine-year-old contortionist; and John, an amazing break-dancer. John's performance was nowhere near as spectacular as his previous effort but Naomi felt bad about the ridiculously low score she gave him on Wednesday and gave him a 5. I'm glad she did. He was my favorite and he won. Marissa is great too but I think there are limited opportunities for a contortionist… in show business.

Next came the Comedians. This is when the audience falls into a coma. At one point Arsenio asked the audience if they were "all laughed out." That question was the funniest thing about the category. Well, the funniest person, Robert, won. Naomi said she took away a point because he was blue. That makes two of us! I have to watch four more shows.

We end with Adult Singers. I must be a poor judge of talent. Screechy Chantel walked away with this one.

Next week we begin again with new contestants trying to get into the second semi-final.

Kathy Taylor lives in California and can be reached at farbissiner@yahoo.com. In addition to her groundbreaking work in the field of reality TV, Kathy is an accomplished long distance swimmer and a singer (performing regularly with her partner Mary Moreno).

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