Does America really have, er, got talent? I was one of many who sat through last year's summer season and ended up feeling like it was a waste of time as the highly overvalued Bianca Ryan managed to win $1 million.

Not that anybody deserved it more.

However, a sneak peek into the quarterfinals over the weekend offered new hope that the second season of the Simon Cowell vehicle, America's Got Talent, could be substantially more entertaining. We saw a sewer worker who could sing like Donny Hathaway, a big, white guy who sang Stevie Wonder with blues riffs on an acoustic guitar.

There was an incredible magic act.

There was a weird Indian, bringing secondary mental images of Sanjaya back to the nation's consciousness.

There was a young, girl singer, but this time she was country. It was like AGT was following its version of Kelly Clarkson with its version of Carrie Underwood.

There's a talented rockabilly band.

Oh, there's Boy Shakira.

Tuesday night was the first of two semifinals performances. Ten acts performed tonight with the hope that five of the ten would move on to a finale. If you're asking me, the five to beat in this bunch were easy to pick out.

Julienne Irwin, 14, was merely good and not great, but she's a notch above most of the rest on AGT 2007. She does have her version of Blake Lewis in beatboxer Butterscotch, who isn't great at either the singing or the beatboxing. But, she's better than most of the others.

If you asked me, my vote is in Robert Hatcher's corner. He's a sewer worker from Cincinnati, who sang "Run To You" by Whitney Houston, and he dressed as if he were invoking the ghost of Donnie H. Now, I won't say he blew the roof off like the greatest soul singer of ALL TIME, but he compares quite favorably to Donnie.

It's funny. I had to explain for the umpteenth time this weekend that "Superstar" is primarily a Donnie Hathaway tune in the soul community, and not a "Carpenters" hit. A friend said, "Wow, he's doing Carpenters."

Noooooo. He was singing Donnie Hathaway.

Alas, most people know this song from the other. I'm just being picky. Nevertheless, on AGT 2007, I don't think we have to be terribly picky because, in my mind, there wasn't anybody else who stood out positively.

The musicianship of Johnny Come Lately was pretty solid, but the lead singer was boring, and the music was trite. Oooh, a rockabilly band doing the one Queen song that fits the style. It was good when you consider their age, and frankly, major props to them for playing instruments so weel. However, there is so much more required of a band, a band dynamic if you will that they just don't have yet.

There was a roper who performed a routine to Big & Rich in the gayest outfit known to man. It was Liberace gay. Charles Nelson Reilly gay. Still, this guy was fun, but it wasn't worth a million bucks.

Kashif, a little Sanjaya wannabe, did a very remedial dance routine to some Bollywood song. It was really terrible, as was the magic routine of Kevin James this week -- just days after I saw him do an incredible show. It was almost as if he was throwing the competition.

A group of four big girls got up and sang "Hot Stuff" as if they were at a bad lounge. They called themselves Glamazons in self-depricative fashion, and I like them, but again, none of this stuff is worth a million.

My hunch is that the roper dude and the rockabilly band sneak in with the three solo singers to the finale. The talent is up over last year, but not that much. Having Sharon Stone is a terrific improvement over Brandy, but David Hasselhoff is nearly unbearable, and Piers Morgan has grown stale.

What I would not have said last year though is that, I think, this show has long-term potential. Jerry Springer is an improvement over Regis as host, frankly, although I'd ax the two male judges and put together a hipper crew.

More than likely, this show won't have me as a viewer until this round in future years. However, if you had some space on the old DVR and some extra time, watching AGT on NBC wasn't the worst fate a television viewer could have faced.