America’s Got Talent expanded with another spinoff in the form of America’s Got Talent: Extreme, but now daredevil contestant Jonathan Goodwin has suffered a serious injury on the set while still in the rehearsal stage of production. Earliest reports indicate that Goodwin’s incident was the result of a performance gone very wrong on October 14, and AGT: Extreme has already made some moves regarding production.
Jonathan Goodwin, who has appeared as a contestant on both America’s Got Talent Season 15 in 2020 and Britain’s Got Talent Season 13 in 2019, was reportedly in the midst of a daredevil act that had him bound in a straitjacket and hanging 70 feet in the air, with a pair of cars swinging back and forth next to him, with the goal for Goodwin to escape the straitjacket and fall between the cars down to safety on an air mattress. TMZ reports that the act did not go according to plan, as Goodwin was between the cars when they collided, resulting in an explosion and fireball that sent Goodwin to the ground on his head.
The outlet states that although Jonathan Goodwin was initially thought by some to be dead due to his lack of response, he was responsive by the time that emergency aid arrived. A spokesperson for America’s Got Talent has released a statement regarding the incident (via TVLine), saying:
During a rehearsal last evening for America’s Got Talent: Extreme, an accident occurred in which escape artist Jonathan Goodwin was injured while performing his act. He was responsive and was immediately taken to the hospital where he is continuing to receive medical care. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family as we await further updates on his condition.
The confirmation that Jonathan Goodwin was responsive is at least good news, although it sounds like his performance couldn’t have gone much worse. He’s certainly not the first to take major risks on the America’s Got Talent stage, as Season 16’s teenage Aidan Bryant most recently was the runner up with his self-taught aerialist acts without a safety net. The fact that Goodwin’s incident happened in rehearsal at least means that he didn’t have thousands of people in the theater watching what sounds like a horrifying accident.
And it’s possible that America’s Got Talent: Extreme won’t get past the rehearsal stage any time soon, if at all. Deadline reports that production on AGT: Extreme has halted for the day, but no details are available at the time of writing as to whether that pause will turn into a stop altogether or what the long-term future is for the Extreme spinoff. It’s not clear how far along in the production stage the show was at the time of the incident, but NBC has axed shows before when running into major problems behind the scenes.
In early October, NBC confirmed that Terry Crews would be back as host and Simon Cowell would be one of three judges, joined by Nikki Bella and Travis Pastrana. For now, we can just hope for the best for Jonathan Goodwin’s recovery after his terrible accident. Our thoughts here at CinemaBlend are with Goodwin in this difficult time.
