When it comes to delivering awe-inspiring performances and shocking feats of astonishment, America’s Got Talent is the king of the castle, and creator Simon Cowell showed off his Midas Touch once more in bringing a second Golden Buzzer into the competition for Season 19. The NBC hit premiere, which featured quite the stressful dance routine, understandably didn’t need to utilize the new change just yet, but all the judges seem highly enthused about AGT’s continued evolution.
Ahead of the 19th season’s debut, the America’s Got Talent squad spoke with Entertainment Tonight about giving auditioning hopefuls a few extra shots at stardom with five additional Golden Buzzers in the running for the remaining weeks of tryouts. As it goes with the ones that were already in place, a Golden Buzzer allows one of the judges to automatically advance an act into the next round of competition, despite what anyone else thinks.
Simon Cowell explained what sparked the idea to bring more of that fan-favorite into the show’s future.
[I thought about] the amount of time and effort these people put into this act and where this can go. People fly in from all over the world, as well as the American artists, and you are seeing the [amazing] things. The 70 times I've just gone, 'How did you come up with that idea?!' That's what I love about the show, you know? It continues to surprise you.
Indeed, every season of AGT auditions features at least one or two acts (if not more) that defy all forms of logic and expectation. And there are no doubt times when one of those offbeat acts could have gone farther in the competition if the judges had more Golden Buzzers to hand out. Which is definitely a reason why Cowell's co-stars are pumped about the addition.
Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum didn't even make it out of the Season 19 premiere without using up her first Golden Buzzer. She gave it to middle school teacher Richard Goodall for his show-stopper performance of Journey's karaoke fave "Don't Stop Believin'." So it's understandable why she's pumped about the new addition. In her words:
I love having that second Golden Buzzer! Because, you know, it's already hard to make up your mind with one act! . . . [Now] it's so nice to know I have another opportunity.
The question now is how long it'll be before she hands out that second Buzzer, perhaps followed by light suggestions for Simon Cowell to introduced a third Golden Buzzer in Season 20. Maybe she'll wait a few years.
Terry Crews
Not that Klum was the only AGT star to go the Golden Buzzer route in the first episode of auditions. Stand-up comedian Learnmore Jonasi took the stage, revealing he traveled to the show all the way from Zimbabwe, and that he also happens to be a mega-fan of Terry Crews, who wound up guaranteeing Jonasi's placement in the next round of the competition. And Crews spoke to the extra Golden Buzzer's importance on a show with such a wide variety of acts.
Talent is subjective. When you put a singer next to a dancer, next to a danger act, next to a magician -- they each need their own buzzer! I just think it’s perfect!
Perhaps whoever takes the stage in the second episode should also voice their extreme fandom for the Brooklyn Nine-Nine vet, as a way to try and secure his second Buzzer. Or maybe something less devious.
Sofia Vergara
Sofia Vergara, who returned to the franchise after stepping away for the Fantasy League spinoff didn't give out any of her Golden Buzzers on night one. But she definitely joined her co-judges in approving a decent-sized number of acts, such as Taiwanese magician Sam Huang (who seemingly pulled his fingers off of his own hand while standing in front of Vergara). When it comes to the extra Buzzer, Vergara was initially nonplussed, but came around once she realized that it wouldn't actually water things down. As she put it:
I thought at the beginning that we didn't really need it. I thought, 'Oh, it's gonna lose a little bit of the excitement for it.' But, you know what, the [contestants] are getting so good that you always feel like you want another one! So I think it was a great idea.
I can see why adding five new guarantees to the auditions might seem as if it would take away some importance from the Golden Buzzers that were already in place. But in this case, it just means the judges get to play favorites a few more times, giving lifelines to a few more acts that likely would have gone home extremely disappointed otherwise.
Howie Mandel
I'm pretty sure if America's Got Talent took its next season to space, or required all acts to be animal-related, Howie Mandel would have the same kind of "alright, let's do this!" attitude about it. So it's perhaps predictable that the stand-up comedian was just as positive-minded about additional buzzers, recalling how excited he was whenever the show first introduced the Golden Buzzer element.
When we were given the opportunity to give Golden Buzzers, it was like it amped up the stakes that much more. That [change] was a highlight for me. So to double that highlight just sends this season to a whole new level!
Like Vergara and Cowell, Howie Mandel didn't reward any of the opening night acts with a Golden Buzzer, but there are plenty of auditions yet to come going into Summer 2024. That said, Cowell previously teased that more Golden Buzzers were issued out in the first two episodes than any comparable stretches in the past. Season 18's winner wasn't a buzzer recipient, but that could very easily change with the new season.
America’s Got Talent airs Tuesday nights on NBC at 8:00 p.m. ET, with episodes streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription.
