Howie Vs. Simon: Who Won in the 'AGT' Golden Buzzer Battle
It was a photo finish on last night’s America’s Got Talent Live Golden Buzzer when Howie Mandel reached out to hit the Golden Buzzer—it was his assigned night—for Airfootworks, and Simon Cowell declared, “I’m going to get fired for this,” and he also hit the Golden Buzzer.
“They were, 'I want to see the tape. I want to see the tape,'” Heidi Klum told Parade on the red carpet after the show. “Simon was, ‘My finger was there faster.’ Let him have it. He was like a little kid in a sandbox. At the end of the day, both loved [Airfootworks], which is a great thing and they’re through to the finals so that’s the most important thing.”
It turned out that Howie’s hand was actually there first, so he gets credit for Airfootworks being his Golden Buzzer, and, when asked, he told Parade that no, he’s not going to press it on Simon’s assigned night.
“He’s a rule breaker, I’m not. I live by the rules, I understand the rules, I am a good company person who listens to the rules, I bet you when he leaves here, he’s going to jaywalk. He’s a rebel that way,” Howie joked with us backstage.
Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC
Howie had been tough on several of the acts that night, including Sofia Vergara’s Golden Buzzer Legión and extreme ballet dancer Ashlee Montague.
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“In my mind, they did another version of the exact same thing,” Howie explained his tough stance. “I enjoyed it, but I’ve seen it. The point is that this is a journey. Show me something I haven’t seen or show me a new way of doing the same thing.”
And more than any other act of the night, Airfootworks did that.
“For me, everybody who was on tonight deserved to be at this level of the competition, but in order to move on, they needed to step it up,” Howie explained. “[Airfootworks] blew me away the first time. I had already given my two Golden Buzzers when I saw them. But they checked so many boxes. They’re great athletes, they have great strength, great artistry and it’s a dance I’ve never seen before. Then they added the video wall behind them where they were choreographed to the video going on behind them. It was like magic. I could see a whole showroom based on what they did.”
Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC
Simon was also not a big fan of Legión’s opening performance and Sofia had no problem taking him to task, she said, “This is hard being a judge. We’re not here to like everything and Simon clearly has his opinions. He’s been here forever and ever, so I fight with him. When I don’t think he’s right, I fight with him.”
The one thing she did agree with him on was that Airfootworks did deserve the Live Golden Buzzer. The other act she would like to see go through to the semifinals is break dancer Bboy Samuka.
“I thought he was amazing tonight,” she said.
And for Heidi, another act she’d like to see make it through was Brooke Bailey.
“I would have picked Brooke Bailey,” she said. “I loved her.”
Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC
One thing Heidi did clarify is that the judges are not assigned the Live Golden Buzzer on the night that one of their previous Golden Buzzers is performing, so they can’t buzz for them a second time.
“When my Golden Buzzer [Richard Goodall] was on stage, I was not allowed to pick,” she said. “If my other Golden Buzzer is not there next week, I may get to pick. They do it like that so we can’t pick our own.”
America’s Got Talent airs performance shows on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC with results revealed on Wednesday nights also at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Streams next day on Peacock.
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