(Image credit: NBC)

The newest season of AGT is only a few episodes into the auditions round in the 2024 TV schedule, but several golden buzzers have already been hit and it’s already clear that the competition is going to be stiff for the grand prize of $1 million. America’s Got Talent is of course only one of many competition shows to hit the airwaves in 2024, and I’ve watched at least some of a lot of them as part of my job covering television. The latest episode of AGT auditions was enough to remind me why this is my favorite of the competition shows.

While there are shows like American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and The Voice (to name just a few) that are all talent competitions giving people a shot at stardom, AGT is the only one where all bets are off for what kind of acts will take the stage on a given night. It’s not just singing or just dancing. You never know what will happen on AGT, and these three acts from the third night of auditions were perfect examples of what fans can find on this show but nowhere else on TV. Even if Simon Cowell sometimes hates the finalists, it’s always an interesting ride.

Biker Andrei Burton

British biker Andrei Burton kicked off the night of auditions with an act that initially seemed to rely on the shock value of possibly damaging Simon Cowell’s car. My curiosity was already piqued when Howie Mandel didn’t seize the opportunity to roast Cowell again for his own bike incident a few years back. As it turned out, Burton wasn’t kidding about bringing a kind of bike act to the stage that isn’t commonly found in the U.S., and starting outdoors before bouncing and bopping his bike inside made him a huge hit with the judges, the audience, and certainly me, watching from home!

I’d never seen anything like it that lasted for as long as it did, and it was a fantastic way to start the night.

Roni And Rhythm

It wasn’t even a full year ago that Adrian Stoica and his dog Hurricane were named AGT Season 18 champions, and are not among the AGT champions who won a golden buzzer first. Roni Sagi came to AGT as a dancer and dog trainer, and her performance with her dog Rhythm was enough for the judges to give a standing ovation. Simon Cowell, who previously addressed how not everybody was excited about Adrian Stoica and Hurricane’s victory in 2023, said that Roni and Rhythm were a “level up” from them.

I’ll admit that animal acts are rarely my personal favorites in the Got Talent franchise, but I have to agree with the judges – Roni and Rhythm’s performance was unlike anything that has happened on the show before, and certainly can’t be found on any other series.

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Magician Solange Kardinaly

America’s Got Talent has delivered a lot of magic acts and a fair number of quick change artists over the years, but never a performer who has combined both quite as well as Solange Kardinaly. While it came as no surprise that Heidi Klum had compliments for Kardinaly considering that Klum hit the golden buzzer for a quick change artist back in 2021, the Season 19 audition impressed all of the judges.

Set to Madonna’s “Material Girl,” Kardinaly’s act didn’t miss a beat – or a stitch – from start to finish, and I was ready to rewatch it during the commercial break. Klum didn’t hit the golden buzzer this time, but there was no reason to worry that Kardinaly wouldn’t get a vote from all four of the judges.

Now, none of this is to say that Andrei Burton, Roni and Rhythm, and Solange Kardinaly were the only standout acts of this AGT episode. Dee Dee Simon closed out the night with an incredible performance of “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls, and dance group Legión received a well-earned golden buzzer from Sofia Vergara. But these three are ones that I can’t imagine finding on any show other than AGT, and they reminded me why it’s so much fun to watch every summer.

Keep tuning in to NBC on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of America’s Got Talent Season 19, and/or stream episodes next day with a Peacock Premium subscription.