America’s Got Talent will look slightly different this season thanks to the new Golden Buzzer rule.
During season 19, instead of the judges — Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Simon Cowell and Sofia Vergara — each having one Golden Buzzer, they will have two. (The Golden Buzzer guarantees that an act moves directly to the Live Shows.)
Host Terry Crews will also have his own Golden Buzzer, meaning there are nine opportunities for an act to earn the coveted accolade.
“There’s so many times we needed to give a Golden Buzzer and you ran out,” Crews, 55, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium for the America’s Got Talent season 19 auditions red carpet. “It’s kind of like running out of Halloween candy. You know what I mean? And people [are] still coming to the house. And you keep having to apologize. Not the season, not the season.”
Since America’s Got Talent debuted in June 2006, the show has gone through many changes — including swapping out the panel of judges from time to time. The series, created by Simon Cowell, kicked off with Piers Morgan, David Hasselhoff and Sharon Osbourne serving as judges. Later, the show expanded to four judges and Cowell […]
Crews noted that “everyone that needs and deserves” a Golden Buzzer “will be able to get one this year.” Mandel, for his part, couldn’t believe the news of the additional Golden Buzzer.
“When we first got note of the Golden Buzzer, originally, I thought, ‘Wow,’” Mandel, 68, recalled. “There are moments where you just go, ‘Wow,’ and your jaw just drops on that desk and you don’t know how to express it and the power of being able to say, ‘Wow,’ with your hand on a Golden Buzzer and push somebody right to the live shows was amazing.”
For Mandel, the power doubling makes “this season epic” compared to previous ones.
Cowell, meanwhile, may not be as excited about the Golden Buzzer as his 10-year-old son Eric. Cowell, who shares his son with Lauren Silverman, said Eric is “always curious” about the phenomenon.
A revolving door! When American Idol debuted on Fox in 2002, music manager Randy Jackson, choreographer Paula Abdul and music executive Simon Cowell made up the panel of judges. For the first seven seasons of the show, the trio remained the faces of the series, along with host Ryan Seacrest. (Comedian Brian Dunkleman cohosted the […]
“[He asks], ‘Did you press the Golden Buzzer? What was it? Why’d you do it?’” Cowell, 64, told Us. “And sometimes he disagrees or, ‘Why did you give that the Golden Buzzer?’”
Eric even tried his hand at the Golden Buzzer after getting himself involved in the action.
“This year in the U.K., the audience got so hyped up about something,” Cowell recalled. “They encouraged him and another judge’s daughter to press the Golden Buzzer and they just ran up and pressed it and I’m like, ‘That’s never happened before.’ And I looked at the producers [and] they went, ‘It’s a Golden Buzzer.’ So he’s done his first one.”
America’s Got Talent premieres on NBC Tuesday, May 28, at 8 p.m. ET. Episodes can be streamed the next day on Peacock.
With reporting by Kevin Zelman
