If suspension of disbelief or naivety are necessary to watch the show with an unjaundiced eye, then I must have them in spades. I find it infinitely more difficult to accept the premise that the show is nothing but a set-up to bring....I dunno...to bring about WHAT? To whose benefit does it accrue for the ventriloquist to win and thereby garner a $100,000,000 contract? The Vegas hotel where he performs?

Or, is it all a case of "the fix is in?" And NBC will share the kitty brought about by sticking this already fairly well-known, established ringer (Boy, does that sound paradoxical) into the mix. I would think it would be a darn sight easier (and FAR less risky) to simply give the guy an hour special, let him showcase his talent, and THEN play to crowds worthy of his sizable salary in Vegas. I don't get it. If it IS nothing but a "bilk the public charade", seems to me they are risking potential across the board credibility issues for the entire network that would be far too devastating a risk..think the game show Twenty-One..to reap whatever it is they make on advertising for a not-that-widely-watched summer show. ESPECIALLY since it is a live, votes-driven program. Let the people find out how their votes were cooked, their time wasted, and watch the hue and cry.

It sounds like the opera guy's back story is an integral part of the master plan. If it is all about deviousness, why didn't they embellish his story to meet winner's (read loser's) criteria for a Queen For A Day whizzing contest? You know the one...MY problems are much worse than YOUR problems! THAT is jaundice to the max. Further, I haven't the foggiest notion what the problems of musicians you've stayed with have to do with the price of oil on the moon anyway...this guy is an insurance salesman. But wait...that, too, is probably a fabrication! But jeepers, I still can't figure why they didn't give him more of a sob story...unless...his tears were unrehearsed, so they went with it, figuring MOST people WOULDN'T view it as a reason to invoke memories of the horrendous hardships of the Jews in Nazi Germany (don't believe there is ANY way to pull oneupmanship on THAT one, eh?)as a frame of comparative reference, thereby diminishing whatever the UNKNOWN, underlying reasons for his obvious discomfiture.

Nope, gives me a headache to become so analytical over a show of this nature. HOWEVER, when the truth as you tell it wins out, as it is wont to do, NBC will be in a peck of trouble (publically speaking) for its scandalous manipulation of said public.