I recorded, then stayed up late watching both shows last night. I was glad at the outcome, but I would have been glad with any of them winning. I had never heard of Hubert before this show, but have always liked both Chiarello and Bayless. I was a bit disappointed at Chiarello in the episode where the previous contestants from Top Chef came back to be sous chefs. But I wonder how much of the arrogance they showed him having was the editing. As for the finale, I loved the challenge they had to do. What a brilliant idea. I bet it was fun for the chefs to do, too. It's too early to tell about the new Top Chefs. I just hope they keep the bickering to a minimum. One of the things I loved about Top Chef Masters was there was little to no bickering, and everyone enjoyed each other's company. Sally

I really wanted to watch it, but missed the first half hour, and then was busy tonight and couldn't see the re-broadcast either, but thanks to breenthumb's mention of watching it online, I managed to see the first half. The show seemed quite ambitious: trying to build an entire coherent futuristic world, introduce a half dozen main characters and present some history and motivations for the characters, and establish the main plot as well as two or three sub-plots, all without resorting to clumsy narration and minimizing the ham-handed exposition. Some of the characters had so little screen-time they seemed a little more like caricatures: The sinister administrator guy conspiring with the eccentric corporate billionaire; the doctor-friend keeping something so momentous secret; even the brilliant scientist guy being unable to stifle his atheistic views enough to avoid repeatedly insulting the people he is asking to fund his research. I also had some quibbles with plot points: Why have only one person on the large space station, especially when the previous astronaut supposedly flipped-out and killed himself? Why wouldn't the husband have at least some ready answer to deflect an obvious and expected fear-motivated line of questions? Why would they even make it possible to delete the video feeds on the space station? I did notice a couple of nice touches in the sequences on the space station: When the power goes out and she is on the rim of the station where there is some "gravity" due to the rotation of the station, and she climbs "up" towards the central hub and experiences less and less "gravity" until she is in free-fall at the hub. Then later when she see see the guy in the airlock, she is floating weightless holding on to a handhold and she then "sees" the guy come walking out which seems to clearly indicate he's a hallucination. All-in-all, despite the above quibbles, I think the show worked pretty well, and has a lot of promise.

I had to go to the AGT website to read Grace's 'story', as I didn't remember hearing or seeing it at all. Apparently she's quite the musical prodigy. But perhaps she would come across a little better when she gets a little older and her voice has a chance to develop more. I always try to imagine myself in one of the judges' seats (yes, pompous, I know), and 'judge' by the quality of the performance, not by my personal likes or dislikes. That's harder to do then one would think! My personal tastes always win out! And that's why I wasn't bothered in the least by the 'glitzy suit' performer being sent home. The background stories are influential, too, Although sometimes I think they dramatize and overplay the sob stories more than they should. But you can't help but admire someone who's pulled themselves up by their boot straps, and is doing their best to have a positive influence on life. They deserve the chance. The talent on this show seems to get better every year! I'd be willing to bet a dollar to a hole in a donut that a number of the contestants will be discovered and move on to bigger and better things, regardless of how they finish up here. Rusty

Oh, wow. The good acts tonight were all really good! Thankfully, there was only one bad one (Monkey) - that we saw. Having said that, I will add that I do not like the "danger" acts like the crossbow guy. I don't consider what he did to be a talent. Yes, it takes guts and nerves of steel - or maybe just a devil-may-care attitude about life - but it's not a talent. I thought the very first act, Greg Morton, would be a bomb, but that guy was spot on. Eric Chien, the magician, was awesome! Fifteen-year-old Sophie Pecora was charming, and brave. Personally, I hope she doesn't always sing songs she has written, though, but I'm guessing she will, since she has posted a lot videos of her songs on You Tube. Patrizio Ratto, the pianist from Italy, was a surprise. You could tell how bored Simon was before Patrizio even started playing Für Elise, but then... wow! The dance troupe from Mumbai, V Unbeatable, brought me to tears. Jackie Fabulous was a hoot! Soooo much better than the trailer trash comedienne last season. Gingzilla, the 7-foot Ginger-zilla, was fabulous!! I wonder if that's his real hair - it's gorgeous, and he's a cutie, too. And his voice! As I said, above, I can do without acts like The Human Fuse. Last, but certainly not least, was Kody Lee. Again, tears. He was awesome. I mean, to be blind and autistic, and sing like he did is one thing, but to play the piano so well, too! Wow. Looking forward to next week!!