I was thrilled that Niya was eliminated. I will give her some credit, though. I do think she made vast improvements on the product and the very concept with the $50,000. My question, though... did the friend dolls speak different languages than Swahili? Like would a Japanese doll speak English, Spanish, and Japanese, for instance? But still, not an invention.

I was a little bummed to see the EZ-X portable gym guy go, but I understood the decision. I still think it's a decent idea that could take off in an infomerical setting. But they would definitely need to work on the safety issue, because that dude getting snapped in the face is no good, even if he set it up improperly.

As for the bike, it did look pretty sweet, especially considering all he had was the same $50,000 as everyone else. Lazy Sackmaster guy should be ashamed. Plus he actually made useful improvements on the bike like the detachable seat. I'm still not 100% on the concept, but the people using it seemed to have fun. And sure, that kid had a sob story like everyone else, but he wasn't simply falling back on that story like some of the others. He went out and DID something in this round.

I'm mad that the Spherical Safety Seat and the Occupied bathroom stall clip are in the same group because I want them both to advance. I think either of them deserve to make it to the finals over the stupid handlebar bike idea. I mean, really, who is going to buy that (besides Ace & Gary)? If you have enough money to buy that thing, why would you need for your buddy to ride shotgun on your bike with you?

The car seat is a great idea in theory, but there is no way I can see that it can be made at a price point anyone would buy it. It's way too bulky and would have to have a gyroscope for it to have a chance at being useful. As it is, make a sharp turn and your baby is doing 360's in his car seat.

If you want to freak out a friend or loved one just walk around singing "Here Comes Niya" over and over.

And then calm them down by cooing "Everythng is going to be all right" in your best Therapy Buddy voice.

Well, I wouldn't go as far as saying all of them aren't inventions... just most of them.

In the final 12, you have 1/2 infomercial-type products (2 excercise products, door clip, toilet-flusher, receiver pole, un-brella); a couple of kids products (Niya, Word Ace) and evidently an old idea (Sackmaster). The only things I would call inventions are the bike (a lot better now that the front is detachable) and the gyroscopic car seat.

Maybe I'm being harsh, but I hope that the winning "invention" ends up a wonderful flop in sales.

Anyone else still watching this?

With the Word Ace and the car seat moving on, combined with the way they grouped the semifinalists and the other inventions that have moved on, I'm beginning to wonder if they are intentionally trying to steer this in the direction of the car seat winning.

I agree the thing is huge and impractical, and will probably be expensive. But the more I think about it, maybe that's still not a bad thing. There are a lot of safety-obsessed parents out there. The ones who overprotect their kids and are terrified at the prospect of their kid even getting a boo-boo. I think those people will eat this up and buy it even if it's $500.

Another thing is, the car seat is mostly designed to protect in higher speed crashes. A normal car seat would still work fine in slower speed crashes, based on what the inventor says. So for normal errands and whatnot you wouldn't need to use the new seat. But you would break it out for longer runs and trips. I think if they found a way to mount it sideways in the backseat, that would lessen some of the size issues. But I'm not sure if that would effect the physics.

So you can catch some flying vomit and end up having a real accident. My wife and I talked about the 360s that a child will do in this seat once you take a quick turn.

I stopped watching this cause of how stupid the inventions are.. but wait up..

WORD ACE ADVANCED TO THE FINALS??!!?!?

That's a new low.

The car seat is an interesting idea, but of all the inventions on this show it's the one that needs the most research. What if a larger car/truck falls over on your car while the kid is flipping upside down? I dunno, just seems like it has a lot of liability issues.

My wife loves this show. Personally, I wasn't impressed with any of the "next great American inventions." It seems they go with the sob story over everything else. But, what I was wondering is this: have they ever said who has end ownership of the invention. Sure, they give the winner a million dollars, but does the inventor have to sign over the idea for that amount?

Why would it be any different than if the child were sitting in a "normal" car seat? I don't think the child would survive eith way....

As far as the show goes, I think the car seat still has a lot of "ifs", but I think that this, and maybe the bike, are the only true "revolutionary" inventions.

I still can't believe that the Word Ace is in the finals. It almost feeled rigged, being put up against the tonerbelt and the headliner. Put it up against the Flushpure, or even the restroom door clip, and it wouldn't have made it.
I really hope that the Word Ace gets no votes, just to show how dumb it is calling that a "great invention".

One last thing... anyone one else find it interesting that 1/2 of the finalists are immigrants? Not saying it's intentional, but it almost seems like they were trying to get some buzz going about it, given the current political landscape?

The car seat is so damn bulky. I hope the game wins. Those kids seemed to enjoy it once they figured it out.

The big problem with the car seat is this: Even if the seat is approved and actually is indeed safer and can be made for under $250 (all of which are HUGE assumptions, BTW), you're still dealing with an incredibly large and expensive item that will only cater to a very few parents with a lot of disposable income and will only work for their child for a few months (most kids will outgrow their infant carrier in 6-9 months). The mission of this show is to bring a product to mass market and to do so quickly to capitalize on the show's popularity and exposure, and there's no way to do that with this product, even if it were the best invention on the show. A tough situation, to be sure.

I'll say this for Word Ace : It's the only finalist item that'll come in at under $100 price point.

I'm still iffy on how Word Ace works exactly. From what I get, the thing says "6 letter word, starting with D". Then everybody writes down a word on their tablet and whoever gets one first hits their button. Then what?

It would be better if instead of tablets there were mini-keyboards that attached to the unit like videogame controllers and players could enter a word there and submit it. But that would drive up the cost a lot.

Anybody know who won?

That's next week.

I think all these "inventions" are.. a 4 letter word stating with L.. oh, yeah, LAME. (not Love, and not Late).

The word ace game looks like something i'd throw in the closet when I was a kid and never look at again, the car seat is too big to fit any normal size car and the kid is going to get so sick from all the rocking & rolling around, the bicycle thing looks cool but when I was a kid the only time 2 people would ride on the same bike is when someone couldn't afford one - everyone wants their own bike, and finally the football catching device is the only invention that I can't really bad-mouth except I wouldn't want one - I figured out how to catch a football on my own.

Word Ace had the best commercial.

So? Give Word Ace a Clio award, then.

Pretty telling that no one posted about the finale. What a terrible, terrible show. I only scanned through it for closure but I won't be back. And has the show's director ever seen another TV show? The pacing and everything was so off I couldn't believe it. The host just stood there and stared at the camera for what felt like an eternity many times. Dreadful.

This is the so called "Drama" that many reality shows long to capture. I don't like when they do these things as it cheapens the show.

To be fair, this show was about as cheap as they come already.

"Forget the million, it's Jerry Rice, baby!"