Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara, and Howie Mandel protest Cowell’s second Golden Buzzer — until they’re given their own.
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America’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell made a big move on Tuesday’s second round of auditions when he used his second Golden Buzzer of the season.
The device is what the judges turn to when they want to send an act directly into the live shows, bypassing a vote of the panel, which also includes Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, and Sofia Vergara. The show made an announcement there would a change in March, but the audience is just now seeing it played out.
Cowell decided to make the unprecedented move — he buzzed in for amazing singer Liv Warfield earlier in the same episode — when he saw the group Sky Elements perform. The group of six men from Dallas explained that they needed the panel to go outside, because their performance was too big for the building: a light show with choreographed drones, which formed a rocket launch and featured Cowell as its astronaut.
Related: America’s Got Talent contestant freaks out the judges — and the audience — in season 19 premiere
When Cowell went to smash the golden button, the judges called him out.
“You already did it!” Mandel reminded Cowell.
Meanwhile, Klum pointed out to the crew, “That’s his second one!”
Someone from production even came over to ask Simon what he was doing.
Cowell’s defense was that he had to: “I just thought, why not? I mean, there’s nothing in the rules that says we couldn’t.”
He was told that, actually, there was. The moment was saved when it was quickly decided that the other judges would receive two Golden Buzzers as well, which seemed to make everyone happy.
Trae Patton/NBC
“We are using more Golden Buzzers this year because there were so many brilliant, mind-blowing auditions,” Simon told PEOPLE. “I know right away when I see an act that is Golden Buzzer-worthy. You feel it.”
Golden Buzzer aside, everyone seemed impressed with Sky Elements.
Vergara noted that she had “never seen anything like that.”
“I don’t know where I’ve been,” the Modern Family alum added, “but I didn’t know you could do those things with drones. It was spectacular.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
