“Genuinely, I have no idea what happened,” Simon told Parade.com in a Zoom call after the show. “I think certain people played it safe. I think one act in particular [Johnny Showcase] went out of their way to find a horrible song on purpose. I really do believe that. It was appalling ‘The Octopus’ song. And then other people, I don’t know what went wrong to be honest with you. It felt more like an audition show, really. But look, as long as you’ve got two or three good performances, which we did, that was enough. But I was surprised and a bit shocked at times.” The judges weren’t in complete agreement on some of the acts that disappointed. Heidi, for instance, stuck by Johnny Showcase. “He is crazy, they are on a different planet,” she told Parade.com. “I know who they are. I want to be on that weird planet with them. I was loving it. I love the girls with the hairy armpits, the bell bottoms, and all that weirdness. My brain was overloaded looking at all of it. I was surprised that Howie wasn’t digging it because he loves comedy normally. OK, Simon doesn’t love this, but Howie normally loves the odd, the different.” In addition to Johnny Showcase, some of the acts that could be in trouble after last night’s performances were T.3, Dokteuk Crew, Shuffolution, Positive Impact Movement and Korean Soul. “I remember when T.3 did the audition and they did ‘Into the Unknown’ a capella with no music behind them, and it was just the three guys,” Heidi added. “Now, they put so much music behind them, I was missing their beautiful voices. I think that was the reason they made it to the Live Shows, because they were like a special act with that, but now, they were just like any other singers in a way.” According to Simon, there were some horrendous performances and some boring ones, so much so it was hard to believe these were the quarter finals, but the night was saved by 9-year-old Golden Buzzer Victory Brinker and 16-year-old trapeze artist Aidan Bryant, who were happy surprises. “Having two or three good ones a night, that’s good enough for me,” Simon reiterated, and then laughed when it was pointed out that seven of the acts will be put through on Wednesday night. But he compared Victory to Carrie Underwood, saying, “I didn’t understand a lot about country music when I first met Carrie, but you do know a star when you hear one and meet somebody. I think same with Victory despite how little I know about opera or classical music. I don’t know much, but I think she is a genuine, genuine star. I can see her making records, concerts, movies, everything. She’s got something special about her.” Several of the other acts who got better reviews were Tory Vagtasy, although Howie doesn’t like Broadway music; Northwell Health Nurse Choir, which is Howie’s Golden Buzzer; Peter Antoniou; and Josh Blue. “I think nervous energy makes you either rise to the occasion or crushes you under the pressure,” Howie said. “I think a lot of people got crushed under the pressure along with some people who made, in my opinion, bad choices on what they intended on doing.” America’s Got Talent airs performance shows on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT and results shows on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Next, Everything We Know So Far About America’s Got Talent Season 16, Including All the Golden Buzzers
