Some changes are coming to AMERICA’S GOT TALENT — here’s everything we know about this season’s new “Judge’s Callbacks” segment.
“Each judge has chosen a number of acts they want to see again,” judge Simon Cowell explained to TV Insider. “It’s not an exact science. And then I might put all of mine through [to the live show], or I might put one through. Whoever we feel has done enough to merit being in the live show.”
Basically, Cowell, Spice Girl Mel B, Howie Mandell and Sophia Vergara pull certain acts to perform a second time, giving them one more chance to make it to the live rounds of AGT.
Cowell, who has also judged on AMERICAN IDOL and THE X-FACTOR, shared that he enjoys this callback element because it’s more personal; he even invites the hopeful contestants to his Malibu mansion.
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“I get to know [the contestants] better,” he said. “And I can give them a bit more advice this way.”
Speaking to USA Today about the new segment, Cowell said he “want[s] this to work.”
“A lot of people over the years ask, ‘If you give 120 people a yes, how do you make that decision to go from 120 to 40?’ Normally we just watch the tapes back over and over and over and over again. No one sees it,” he continued. ”Now I’m actually doing it [in front of the camera], and it’s real. I love it.”
Remarking again on the personal element of the callbacks, Cowell said this gives the contestants “a much more relaxed environment for them to do whatever they want to do.”
“I know so much more about these people now than I did a few weeks ago, when I first met them,” he said. “The first audition, you’re on, you’re off, and it’s so quick. This is really good. I spent a whole day with them yesterday, just really getting to know them, and it was everything.”
Cowell has made a career out of judging would-be stars on talent shows like AGT, but at a recent virtual press conference, he admitted he never thought he would also become a star.
“When I started developing these shows, I wasn’t thinking I’m going to do those so I can be on camera; that wasn’t part of the plan,” he explained. “When I agreed to do it in the UK and America to begin with, it was only to be one year. That was the plan.”
Cowell added, “And actually, genuinely, I can say I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. … If I’m being honest with you, the fact that we’re able to sell a show in America, and for me to be on a show in America, I have to pinch myself every time they open the studio gates. But it wasn’t something I expected.”
New episodes of AMERICA’S GOT TALENT Season 21 air Tuesday nights.
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