It’s one of the least excitable points of any given year for an America’s Got Talent fan, as we’re just two weeks out from Adrian Stoica and his pup Hurricane pulling off a surprise victory in the Season 18 finale, meaning we’re about as far away from new episodes as can be. (And some viewers are still miffed about that outcome, which Simon Cowell defended.) Thankfully, the NBC hit’s judges can still be counted on to make headlines between seasons, and Howie Mandel appears to be going all-in on playing matchmaker for co-star Sofia Vergara amidst her divorce from Joe Manganiello. And it doesn’t sound like she’s mad about it, either.
As AGT viewers are probably aware, at least if they regularly tuned into Season 18’s live installments, Mandel started making direct appeals during episodes for someone to catch Vergara’s attention, even if the first “in the market” reference he made was directed at one of 12-year-old ventriloquist Brynn Cummings’ puppets. Not the mostly likely suitor for…well…anyone, but Vergara was totally tickled by it at the time, and appeared to keep that same bemused reaction when similar comments were made in later eps.
Howie Mandel joked about making that his mission at the time, and provided People with the update that he’s not pulling back on assisting Vergara in attaining a new and encouraging romance. He first explained why he’s so invested, saying:
I love Sofía Vergara. I find her incredibly, first, in no particular order, beautiful, smart, funny. . . . [She] deserves to be with somebody ASAP.
Not everyone can boast a famous-for-decades comedian co-worker as a dedicated and engaged matchmaker, but then not everyone is Sofia Vergara. And to be quite frank, I can imagine that there are tons of people out there who wouldn’t want a colleague donning the matchmaker hat. I can name plenty of people I wouldn’t ever want to have those responsibilities.
But it sounds like Vergara hasn’t caused a stink with Mandel over his efforts, which don’t exactly appear to be subtle in nature. He continued:
I scream it from the rooftops. Sometimes people think that's inappropriate, other people, not Sofía. She doesn't get mad at me.
It’s definitely a net positive that Sofia Vergara isn’t perturbed by Howie Mandel’s attempts, and also that he isn’t holding himself up as her best option for a future husband. The comedian has been married to wife Terry Soil since 1980, so any hypothetical flirtations would have been weird on multiple levels.
That said, I think the longtime AGT judge is going about it all wrong. Screaming from rooftops? How many reputable bachelors can one possibly run into while on top of a roof? 1 or 2, maybe 3. But it seems to me like it’d be one of the least optimal places for Mandel to try out his courting skills.
Mandel, who ranked among our Top 15 game show hosts of all time, has his work cut out for him, as it’ll likely take a very special someone to inspire Vergara to enter a serious relationship again, especially before all the divorce details have been finalized.
While America’s Got Talent proper will be back presumably next fall, the franchise is moving forward in early 2024 with a new spinoff that’ll replace Vergara with Spice Girls vet and former AGT judge Mel B, so that should make it a little more difficult for Mandel to set the Modern Family vet up.
