It's about time this flaw was mentioned on the show!
NBC's hit summer show America's Got Talent is currently in the "Judge Cuts" phase of season 13. The second round of the competition takes place over four weeks and on each episode, 18 acts vie for just seven spots in the live shows.
In addition, each week the four regular judges, Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Simon Cowell, will be joined by a guest celebrity judge who gets one push of the Golden Buzzer. Whichever act gets the Golden Buzzer automatically gets sent through to the live shows, meaning the remaining 17 acts would then be competing for one of six spots.
This week's guest judge was actress Olivia Munn, best known for her role as Psylocke in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocolypse. She was witness to a variety of acts, from magicians to dancers to singers to more singers. Although she verbally expressed to many of the performers how amazing and talented they were, one act really stood out for Munn, enough to cause her to use the most powerful weapon she had.
Angel City Chorale, led by Sue Fink, blew everyone away with their rendition of Toto's classic song Africa during the auditions, even getting Simon Cowell to give them a standing ovation. For their second performance, the 140+ member choir performed the song "Baba Yetu," which was the theme song from the 2005 video game Civilization IV and was the first video game theme song nominated for a Grammy Award.
Once again the Angel City Chorale dazzled the AGT stage with their harmonious voices and their synchronized choreography, enough to get all four judges and Munn to rise to the feet after the performance was complete.
When it was Munn's turn to speak, although there was a minor technical difficulty with her desk microphone at one point, the crowd's loud screams and claps were definitely picked up by the microphone when Munn hit the Golden Buzzer for them.
Although this season has now featured six out of seven Golden Buzzers hit for singing acts, which is downright absurd since America's Got Talent is the only show that showcases acts of all kinds and is not a straight singing competition, the Angel City Chorale definitely deserved to go straight through to the live shows because they are a unique singing act. So, after the shiny gold confetti reached the floor and the celebration concluded, it was time to move on to more performances to determine which addition six acts would join Angel City Chorale as this week's top seven.
This is where the America's Got Talent flaw comes into play.
The final performer of the night was stand-up comedian Vicki Barbolak. Vicki's routine about her 16-year-old daughter's wish of going to Coachella, bringing a flask on her daughter's first field trip and the pressure's of being a young mom in today's times entertained the judges immensely. After all the laughs passed and the judges took their seats after their standing ovation, Simon asked Olivia what she thought of Vicki's performance. Olivia then said that she wished she had two pushes of the Golden Buzzer because, if she did, she would have pushed the Golden Buzzer for Vicki as well.
As mentioned above, Vicki was the last performer of the night, and Olivia used her Golden Buzzer on Angel City Chorale, which was the tenth act to perform on the July 24 episode. Each week, the eighteen acts perform in a pre-determined order set by the producers, meaning the contestants have no control over the numbered slot they are placed in. If you look at seasons 10 through 14, the seasons in which the "Judge Cuts" rounds have been used and guest judges have been given a push of the Golden Buzzer, they have all taken advantage of their power during the middle range of acts. Although there have been 20 performers per episode in the past, the guest judge Golden Buzzer over the last four seasons has been used between acts seven and fourteen.
With that being said, acts performing after the Golden Buzzer being hit have no shot of automatically advancing to the live shows. This is completely unfair for those acts, especially the ones who perform in the last four spots or so because, based on the track record, the Golden Buzzer is never available by that time. Why should acts performing near the end of the line-up be penalized from getting the most coveted prize in the second round just because the producers decided they would perform in the order assigned?
When Olivia Munn mentioned to Vicki Barbolak that she wished she could also press the Golden Buzzer for her, whether she knew it or not, she was exposing a flaw America's Got Talent has with the "Judge Cuts" format.
The Golden Buzzer is in no way reflective on which act the guest judge likes the best from the entire list of performers but rather which act they like the best based on what has already been seen. This means the acts performing after the use of the Golden Buzzer have not been taken account for, even though some might be, in the opinion of the guest judge, just as good or even better than the act which received the Golden Buzzer.
This was the case for Vicki. Based on her comment, Olivia believed she was worthy of the Golden Buzzer and, in her mind, could have been a better act than the Angel City Chorale. However, because Olivia used it earlier on, even though Vicki was a Golden Buzzer contender, she was robbed of a potential spot in the live shows, all because of a performance placement made by the producers.
This is how the guest judge Golden Buzzer should work.
Instead of having them use it during the performances, after all the acts have showcased their talent to the judges, the guest judge can pick one act to go through to the next round as their honorary selection. This act would be chosen without consolation with the other four judges and would be announced before the remaining judgement begins. In fact, you technically don't even need the Golden Buzzer. All eighteen acts can be brought back out onstage and the guest judge can announce who they have chosen right then and there after all the performances have ended.
With this format, it gives every single act performing on the same episode the opportunity to win a spot in the live shows. It also gives the guest judge the opportunity to judge the competition as a whole before making a decision. All the other format does is, in a sense, play favoritism to an act before experiencing what everyone else has to offer, which is unfair for the acts performing near the end of the line-up.
In addition to the disadvantage of the later performers, there is also a disadvantage to the early performers as well, specifically the acts performing in spots one through five. The guest judge probably doesn't want to use the Golden Buzzer too early because there are still so many acts left to go, so they hold out, even though an act performing early in the line-up might be worthy of the push. This is why acts performing in the middle of the pack have the advantage of getting the Golden Buzzer because there have been a number of acts that have already gone in which comparisons can be made.
It's mind-blogging how the producers of the show can influence who has a shot at getting the Golden Buzzer and, more importantly, how all the AGT producers can't realize that the Golden Buzzer element during the "Judge Cuts" contains a flaw.
What do you think about the Golden Buzzer flaw? Should the rules be changed? Tell us below!