Tuesday night was a big one for America's Got Talent hopeful Thomas Day, who made a surprising return to the competition for the first night of the semi-finals, despite the fact that he didn't even take part in the quarter-final rounds. However, more than a few viewers took umbrage with Day's return, especially since his on-air reason for exiting the show in the first place contrasted with what he'd previously claimed. All in all, a pretty unique way to rile up the AGT masses.
The 17-year-old Thomas Day was allowed to re-enter the America's Got Talent competition as one of the season's two highly coveted Wild Card slots, and while some no doubt think that his subdued performance of Billie Eilish's "When the Party's Over" was a solid choice, it wasn't exactly a show-stopper that instantly justified the Wild Card distinction. However, it wasn't his musical choice that had fans railing on the show, but rather the health scare story that he shared with everyone.
After making it through the audition process before the live shows returned, Thomas Day was meant to perform during Week 3 of the Quarter-finals, though that appearance was delayed to Week 4, and then Day just never showed up, without any explanations or statements offered up by the show. On Tuesday, he shared that he and his mother were in Los Angeles to rehearse for the Quarter-finals, but his mom ended up testing positive for COVID-19. They quarantined separately from one another for the next two weeks, with the younger Day getting tested regularly. And then lo and behold, he also tested positive for it. Here, he explained his thought process going from accepting an automatic loss to being resurrected for a return.
I was scared for my health. My mom and I were fortunate — we got through it. I've watched the show. I've seen all the people go through. And I mean, I know my dream is over. I'm just waiting for the flight to go back home — and out of nowhere, on the last day of quarantine, that's when I got the call when they told me I was being brought back on the show as a wild card. I feel so blessed and thankful.
Certainly, that story is an inspirational one at its core, but quite a few fans on social media were quick to question Thomas Day's explanation, since he had previously shared a far different one on the celebrity-video app Cameo. In at least one paid-for video, Day told a fan that he had to drop out of America's Got Talent because the timing of his high school football schedule complicated his ability to be on the show. Clearly, "opting out for sports" is far different from "caught COVID-19 with my mom," and viewers were peeved that he lied about the reason for his exit. (Not to mention the fact that he likely would have been breaking an NDA agreement by sharing anything about the competition on Cameo.)
As we ponder what Simon Cowell would say about all this if he was back at the judges' table, let's go through some of those fans' gripes below, starting with someone calling out his football schedule excuse.
Some people on social media were confused about why he would have apparently lied about his football schedule at a point when viewer speculation had already tipped towards him catching COVID-19.
But there were definitely other viewers who assumed that the COVID story he told on America's Got Talent was the actual lie, and that his Cameo video featured the actual truth.
Yet another side of this argument has less to do with why Thomas Day left in the first place, and more to do with AGT's producers allowing him to jump ahead into the Semi-finals without
Take a look at Thomas Day's performance below and let us know in the comments if you think it was worth the Wild Card.
America's Got Talent airs Tuesday and Wednesday nights on NBC at 8:00 p.m. ET. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage, and be sure to bookmark our 2020 Fall TV premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way in the near future.
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