America's Got Talent / YMMV

Ass Pull: Many a fan shouted this during season 13, 14, and 15's numerous second chances given by Simon Cowell to singing acts, a grace afforded to no other kind of act.
Audience-Alienating Era:
- Seasons 12-15, due to noticeable bias by both the producers and the judges, with season 15 not even having a consistent judging panel (though this was due to issues past anyone's control) and due to lessened variety in the acts compared to prior seasons.
- Seasons 15-18, despite the overlap with the previous one, has been vilified for the frequent format changes that have been deemed unnecessary and results in Dancing Bear acts getting to the live shows over more talented acts. The general consensus is that in the live shows, feel good "safe" acts fare better than far more talented acts. Three of the past four winners are among the most questionable of the entire franchise, all of whom meet that feel good "safe" criteria (Brandon Leake, Dustin Tavella, and Adrian Stoica & Hurricane).
Awesome Ego: Singing Trump. While the ego part is just an act, when you combine that with an uncanny impersonation and legitimate singing talent, you get a truly memorable and entertaining contestant.
Trump: I would like to dedicate this next song to the one and only love of my life: Me.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Marty Brown of Season 8, who, after singing a dreadful performance of "You're Still the One" in the quarterfinals,^note got to move on to the semifinals anyway due to having a huge amount of support from the country community. AGT fans were not pleased with this. After his semifinals performance, in which Marty sang much better but played it completely safe, he lost to another country singer.
- Jimmy Rose is also this, as he got the last performance spot in the live shows twice while also getting the next-to-last spot in the Top 12 performances, meaning that he was the freshest in America's minds. This all gives him a bit of an unfair advantage, as he made it to the finals partly because of these lucky spots. Also, like Brown above, he has a large amount of support from the Deep South. He ended up in third place for Season 8.
- "B-Double O- T-Y" singer Tone the Chiefrocca is either highly entertaining or a complete waste of space. Doesn't help that Mel B used her wild card pick to save him for the semifinals.
- Contemporary pop and country singers in general can fall under this trope. They've won 7 out of the 16 seasons^note, and there have been at least four other shows that ran during AGT's run that were built specifically with singers in mind. On one side, you have those who say "This show is not meant to be another American Idol. Send the singers to one of those other shows and let new entertainment shine for once!" On the other side, you have those who say "This is a talent show. Singing is a talent. Let it be."
- The replacement of Piers Morgan with Howard Stern. While Howard is much more fun than Piers and brings his own brand of humor and enjoyment to the show, he has much of the same ego problems and has already become the "head" judge of the show. You either embrace his sense of humor or you hate him for his arrogance.
- Howie absolutely loved "Those Funny Little People" in Season 6, while Piers absolutely loathed them and Sharon was in the middle, finding it entertaining but not really Vegas-worthy. However, a major reason Howie loved them is precisely because Piers hated them — he jokes when he brought the act back as a Wild Card that he didn't see much of the act because he was busy watching Piers watch the act and was just as entertained by that.
- Howie himself is a bit of a base breaker as a judge. Some love him for his fun-loving Nice Guy nature to counterbalance the more "serious" judge(s) on the panel (Piers, Howard, or Simon). Others don't like him for not taking the show as seriously as he could be, especially in regard to his insistence that So Bad, It's Good acts actually have a chance in being in the live rounds.
- Season 9 brought Maggie Lane, an opera singer who came on-stage wearing a trench coat, and in the middle of her song untied the sash and dropped the coat to reveal she was wearing a bikini. Some applaud her for being a talented singer and being proud of her body, while others think that she resorted to the gimmick of sex appeal to help get through instead of relying on her talent.
- Season 11's winner, Grace Vanderwaal, is probably one of the most divisive winners yet. While many find her cute and her reliance on original songs to be quite refreshing considering the show's preference of cover music, the more vocal detractors have accused the producers of favoritism by giving her more screen time than any other contestant (for example, during the finale, she was smack-dab in the middle of the stage with everyone else on either side of her). Then there's the fact that she's only 12 years old, which the producers make sure you were reminded of after every performance, causing many discussions about her being too young to headline a show in Vegas (considering previous contestant Jackie Evancho had rumors that she was denied her win because of her age). And there's also the fact she beat out the popular and less divisive The Clarivoyants.
- Season 12's Chase Goerhing. The judges loved him. The fanbase at large mocked him for his "Nice Guy" shtick and constant whining about girls.
- Season 13's Angel City Chorale. Thanks to the sheer size of the group (151 singers in all) fans were split between whether they were a genuinely talented choir, or were coasting by on their almost unfair at home voting base. However, this was somewhat a downplayed example, as they only made the semifinals (Even with their large base of relations, they did not make the Top 5 of their heat and only got through via the Dunkin' Save)
- Season 14's Detroit Youth Choir, largely for the same reasons as the Angel City Chorale. They're either a very talented and energetic choir, or they're mediocre and coasting along with the votes from their home city. Not helping is the fact that they placed second in the finals, which even their supporters felt was too high. Many viewers also thought that the Ndlovu Youth Choir deserved a better chance, as they incorporated their culture and more dance into their acts and also came from a far more destitute background.
- Season 15's winner, the storyteller/performance poet Brandon Leake, is the most divisive champion since Grace Vanderwaal. His fans felt his act was unique and powerful (especially in a year dominated by singers), but his detractors argued his act wasn't exciting enough and felt out of place on the show. They also questioned how he could make a 2 hour Vegas act out of spoken word.
- Simon Cowell was initially well-liked by the audience for his Brutal Honesty schtick, but gradually came under fire for making changes to the format which irritated the fans. Viewers became frustrated with his habit of allowing singers a second (or even third) chance if he disliked their song choices, reinforcing AGT's bias in favour of singers (fortunately, the second chances were dropped in season 16, likely due to the fan backlash).
  - Fans were also frustrated over Simon's proposal to discard the popular four-episode format of the judge cuts (used from Season 10 to Season 14) in favor of a one-episode format. While many fans were willing to forgive that for Season 15 due to COVID restrictions, a lot of fans disliked the way it judged most acts on the basis of their auditions ^note This also caused a pacing issue as 3 recap episodes were shown over the course of 4 weeks. Plus, given that the function of the Golden Buzzer is to let someone into the live show automatically, this format change would render the golden buzzer practically pointless.
- Dustin Tavella proved to be a relatively polarizing winner. Compared to Mat Franco and Shin Lim (two of the most popular winners in AGT history), Tavella was a less skilled magician, but relied heavily on pulling the heartstrings by theming most of his routines around his family, which some viewers found charming and others found too Glurgy for a magician. Like Grace Vanderwaal, his status as a polarizing winner was exacerbated by the fact he won over several popular variety acts (including Aiden Bryant, Josh Blue and Lea Kyle) by a relatively narrow margin.
  - The player he beat, Aiden Bryant, himself has become this in recent years. While no one is denying he's very talented, he's been brought back for inter-season specials over and over which has brought forth more division. The division comes from the fact that his act really tends to consist of the same exact trick, spinning on an apparatus over the stage with only minor tweaks each time. This has led some fans to grow tired of him and wonder if he's really as good as the show hypes him up to be, or if he is just a one trick pony.
Catharsis Factor: Ramadhani Brothers, who many feel should've won Season 18, winning Fantasy League even beating out the winner of their season and getting a generous prize sum of $250,000.
Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Singers tend to find more success on this show than variety acts do. After 15 seasons, more than half the winners are singers in some way, they tend to get the Golden Buzzer more often than other kinds of acts, both during auditions and from guest judges during the Vegas weeks, and the finalists of many seasons are often heavy on singers, even if a singer didn't win the season. They also get preferential treatment from Simon when an audition goes poorly; if Simon feels they have talent but just didn't pick a good song, he'll stop the act without buzzing them and let them try a different song, and in Season 13 he gave opera singer Daniel Emmet an hour break to practice an unfamiliar song Simon gave him and then come back and perform it. No other act gets such graces unbidden, and if a performer were to ask to be allowed to start over or to have extra rehearsal time, they'd likely be refused and sent home. The format of the show is also kinder to singers, since it's relatively easy for a trained singer to do well consistently while variety acts tend to be fairly complicated to plan and set up, and even discounting everything that can go wrong, there's the challenge of pleasing a fickle audience with something new and fresh each time.
Creator's Pet: Singing acts. As to be expected from a show by the creator of American Idol, singing acts are blatantly favored by the judges. Frequently getting second chances in auditions, a luxury afforded to no other type of acts, and making up a good 90% of Golden Buzzers for any given season. It hit a new level in the Season 17 finale where singer Sara James was given her performance in a widescreen shot and the cameras used were way higher definition making it look like it came out of a movie, naturally, this luxury wasn't given to any acts before or after her that same night.
Creepy Cute: Tape Face is creepy looking with those huge, crazy eyes, but his performances are quite adorable.
Dancing Bear: Some acts can make it past auditions and occasionally past the quarterfinal on the basis of being one, but they never get very far. This is especially notable in the case of the more subpar child acts like Future Funk.
Elimination Houdini: Daniel Emmet in Season 13. When his initial audition (singing) went poorly, Simon gave him a new song to try (because he didn't have one already; a major faux pas for singers anyway) and an hour to practice before coming back and getting four yeses. He then got cut in Judge's Cuts but came back as a Wild Card, and in the Quarterfinals and Semifinals he got the Dunkin Save (meaning he was in the bottom three for voting in the first place) and the judges voted him through the second time. This meant he made it into the finals, when some fans felt he shouldn't even have gotten to the live shows at all if not for Simon's second chance.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Liliac from Season 15, despite being shown for less than 45 seconds and withdrawing before Judge Cuts were one of the most talked about acts for their amazing audition. Many fans were enraged that their audition was cut short, and livid when it was revealed the show tried to rip them off forcing them to withdraw.
Fan Nickname: Tends to be labelled "America's Got Singers" by those who dislike the abundance and favoritism displayed towards singing acts.
Glurge: Heaping amounts. The show's editing is particularly predictable in how they milk this trope; if the next performer has a sad, emotional story of some sort, you can rest assured they'll go through without even having to know what the act is. Even performers who don't have a sad backstory during the initial auditions will be drawn into it later on. By the time of the final rounds they'll be talking about how inspirational and hopeful their progress has been for their families and friends who have supported them all the way and they want to win so badly to realize their dreams and support their family.
- Christina and Ali Christensen, a singing duo who made it into the Top 10 on the basis of both of them, as well as their two other siblings, having cystic fibrosis. The two also say that they started performing as a duo for their older sister's funeral.
- Subverted in Season 7 with Tim Poe, who had a bad speech impediment from brain damage he got during military service in Afghanistan. It came out after his audition episode aired that this was a lie, though the show was able to sweep it under the rug because he had been eliminated in Vegas Week anyway.
- Also in Season 7, young mariachi singer (and his band) Sebastien "El Charro de Oro" de la Cruz. He's pretty much saved himself in the competition by wooing Sharon over for her to save him as a Wild Card. Then, after doing a mariachi version of Frank Sinatra's classic "Theme from New York, New York" in said round, he pretty much won America's votes not only with that song but by sobbing that he had to miss his little brother's birthday just for his performance.
- Again in Season 7, contortionist dancer Turf's backstory as a homeless street performer is mentioned more than his actual moves. Somewhat subverted since he has since moved to Las Vegas after his audition, and is living a much better life since he makes more money street performing on the Vegas Strip.
- The Untouchables (7 yet again) are also guilty of this. Even though those kids are definitely very good if not professional dancers, they cry after each performance while being praised by the judges and the audience. In fact, they won America over to send them to the finals by having their youngest member, an 8-year-old girl named Ruby, say that she's crying because she's so happy. However, it was later subverted when news broke out that they've been causing a ruckus at the Newark hotel they've been staying at for the finals. Then, after their finals performance, they subverted this trope again by basically laughing it off after Howie mentions their incident. This probably helped play a role in why they ended up in last place among the finalists.
- Season 8 gave us Deanna DellaCiopaa, who made sure to remind everyone that this was her "last chance" and cry before and after her performances. She got the boot fairly early.
- Season 16 winner Dustin Tavella was pretty polarising for this reason, as many felt he won based on his unsubtle attempts at pulling the heartstrings of voters (with all of his routines featuring constant references to his family and messages about the power of kindness) rather than his technical ability.
- Wheelz from AGT Extreme was a disabled stunt performer whose audition (involving him doing a single flip, which he only landed on the second attempt) were basic compared to many of his competitors. However, he won a Golden Buzzer and a Superfans vote and made it to the Final Two, where he tried a second single-flip stunt and failed BOTH times...
- Msazi Youth Choir is a good, but nothing special choir who has made it to the finale over superior acts such as Zion Clark who overcame a debilitating birth defect that kills most of its victims. The reason for this seems to be the sentimentalism appeal of having been inspired by Nightbirde, one of the most genuinely heartbreaking stories of all time, and the show feels the need to remind us of this every single time they're on stage.
Growing the Beard:
- Season 2 was a lot better than the first in many ways. A better idea of how elimination was working, not wasting time calling contestants from the audience, replacing Regis Philbin and Brandy with Jerry Springer and Sharon Osborne respectively, less buzzer BS (Brandy hitting the other people's buzzers on a burlesque act was just disrespectful), etc. Terry Fator, the season's winner, is also arguably the most successful act to come out of the show so far; in 2008, he signed a long-term contract with the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and has been performing there ever since. It was a nine figure contract (he won a barely seven figure prize, $1,000,000, from AGT).
- Season 5 managed to grow the beard to the point where even Vote For The Worst members were won over despite the site relentlessly bashing it previously.
- Season 7, which was the debut of Howard Stern as a judge, had much less singers moving on in the live rounds (not to say that there weren't any good singers that season) and a complete absence of them in the finals, allowing for more variety in talent. It may also be a sign of America's fatigue with singers on the show, especially now that NBC has a hit singing competition of their own.
- Season 8 dropped the YouTube and the Wild Cards rounds in favor of increasing the amount of quarterfinalists to sixty. While dropping the latter round and having the judges pick just one wild card semifinalist each was a questionable decision, especially since their wild cards didn't even make the Top 12, the series did make the right decision to drop the YouTube round as not only is it more fair to those who've been competing throughout the season, but also that the MySpace/YouTube rounds almost always sucked.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- In the 2016 season, football star Jon Dorenbos auditioned in AGT as a magician, to the surprise of those who already knew him as a footballer. When asked by the judges what he's going to do after the show, Jon jokes about needing a backup career because NFL stands for "Not For Long". In 2017, he's diagnosed with aortic aneurysm, and was forced to retire from his football career.
- In 2021, the song that plays when Nightbirde (who was diagnosed with cancer and had a 2% chance of pulling through) gets Simon's Golden Buzzer is "Breathe Again" by Joy Oladakun with the chorus asking "Will I ever breathe again?" Tragically, she died in February 2022 so she will never breathe again.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In Season 5, Lindsey Stirling was told by judge Piers Morgan that she was "not good enough... to get away with flying through the air and trying to play the violin at the same time." Ten years later, Stirling posted this edit made by a fan that juxtaposed that comment with a clip of her performing her song "Crystallize" while spinning several feet off the ground hanging by her hair.
  Challenge accepted.
- In Season 14, in the second episode, after Yurian Retriever got rejected by the judges, she proceeded to attempt to purposely hit the golden buzzer, which did not work for her. Three weeks later, another contestant hit the golden buzzer (albeit accidentally) - Ben Trigger, who got so caught up in his act that he accidentally hit the buzzer while he was dancing on the judges' table.
Ho Yay:
- Howie and Howard in late Season 8. They even wound up kissing, though they both looked ready to throw up afterward - even so, that didn't stop them from imitating Jack and Rose from Titanic (1997) the next week during Forte's performance of "My Heart Will Go On". Since then, the two occasionally play it intentionally for the laughs.
- Played for Laughs with Men with Pans. Two men wearing only Chef's hats and covering their things with pans. The act escalated with one of them climbing on the other.
Just Here for Godzilla: As with a lot of talent TV shows, lots of viewers just watch to see their favorite judge or some watch only the auditions to see all the bad acts.
Les Yay: Collins Key in the finals, got Heidi and Mel B to almost kiss each other, by having them bite into two playing cards.
Narm: Once per Episode, the judges will offer comments such as "this is the greatest [kind of act] we've ever seen on this show" or "we've never seen anything like this!" Very often they're talking about acts where there most certainly have been similar ones on the show before (possibly even in the same season), and if they were better or not is arguable. While the spirit of the words is merely giving high praise, repeatedly resorting to this level of hyperbole is almost a Running Gag.
Moment of Awesome:
- There is a lot in the audition rounds, but the real awesome acts are the ones who survive to when America votes. Look at Season 5's semifinals. Rock-climbing dancers! Kite-flying as a performance art! Guys who play music with lightning! A blacklight performance troupe! And...however you describe Prince Poppycock.
- Hannibal Means (also Season 5) really embodies the crazy with rainbow muumuus, the (knitted!) hats, weird warm-ups...and the awesome? The man can really sing.
  - Pity he didn't make it further. He could just stand on-stage and talk and people would still watch him.
- Professor Fig from Season 6. He walks on stage in a purple sequined suit and a cat on his shoulder and it got weirder.
- Season 6 also gives us the Kinetic King, who invents Rube Goldberg machines that explode and collapse on themselves and speaks with a distinctly Minnesotan accent with a very dry sense of humor.
Nightmare Fuel: Many daredevil acts alone are this, especially Dan Myers' Sword Swallowing act where David buzzed him while in the middle of the act.
- Brad Byers swallowing nine swords. See Squick down below.
- Horror-themed dance troupe West Springfield Dance Academy were one of the few non-dangerous acts to provide this.
- Another non-dangerous act that provides this is Season 13's The Sacred Riana, a magician who looks and acts like a girl from a Japanese horror movie, bases her tricks on horror themes, and whose unsettling performance is rock-solid and never shaken. Her act won Asia's Got Talent, perhaps because she was so scary.
- Season 14 had Nicholas Wallace, who said he dabbled in the strange and unusual, and proceeded to have Gabrielle sit in a haunted chair and then brought out a creepy doll and told Gabrielle to raise her hand every time she felt a strange sensation. Every time he touched the doll, Gabrielle raised her hand. It freaked Howie out a lot.
Overshadowed by Controversy:
- Season 13 got quite a bit of heat when fans discovered an inordinate number of contestants had already appeared on other reality shows, and said the show should be about finding completely new talent who hadn't already had a chance to show their stuff.
- The treatment of Kodi Lee, a blind and autistic singer, got slammed by many in the disabled community as cliched and harmful "inspiration porn," especially since the original title of the official video for his Golden Buzzer performance referring to his "defeating" his disabilities. ^note
Reality Subtext: In the first episode back after Season 7's break for the Olympic Games, Nick's introduced Sharon as "the irreplaceable Sharon Osbourne". Sharon had announced during the interim that she was leaving the show.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- The news that fan-favorite Nick Cannon was going to be replaced with Tyra Banks was met with a lot of derision toward the latter, especially given that she is substantially different in personality than Cannon; some YouTube comments even wished death on her. However, after only two completed seasons on the show, she's become much less divisive, at least in part due to her excellent Golden Buzzer choices (two very good ensemble dance acts in both seasons, as opposed to every other judge picking singers). While she still has people who dislike her, they are much quieter.
- Season-wise, 13 can be considered this. In the beginning, many were calling it worse than 12 for good reason: a majority of acts were already semi-famous, the aforementioned Ass Pull of singers getting second chances mid-performance, snubs in Judge Cuts worse than the previous season's (with Angel Garcia, Jeffrey Li, and Oliver Graves all going home in the same episode), having what fans considered to be by far the worst set of Golden Buzzers in the show's history, several acts in the live shows appealing to the Lowest Common Denominator, and the quarterfinals set malfunction causing Sacred Riana to be eliminated. The semifinals were much more well received by eliminating a lot of the singers (even ones pegged as finalists), leaving a more varied playing field. In the finals, Courtney Hadwin faltered, leaving an opening for underdog and fan-favorite non-Golden Buzzer act Shin Lim to steal (and win) the show with his best performance.
- The eccentric animal impersonator Sethward got some respect when he made it to the live shows of Season 16, after having auditioned for AGT three times before^note and got sent home each time. While no one expected him to advance past the first round of live shows, he got recognition for his tenacity and willingness to keep trying year after year, and his dedication to try to be an entertainer because it's what he wants to do.
Retroactive Recognition: RuPaul's Drag Race fans will recognize Derrick Barry, who appeared on Season 3 of AGT, and Kennedy Davenport, who briefly appeared in Season 8's Vegas rounds.
Seasonal Rot:
- Season 12 to many. Starting with replacing the beloved Nick Cannon with Tyra Banks, then with many fan-favorite acts being eliminated in Judge Cuts, an overabundance of singers in the semifinals round, the dynamic between the judges getting very raunchy (like throwing water on each other or making a joke towards Mel B's marriage), Character Shilling that was beyond excessive, a very predictable winner, and said winner being a child nonetheless resulted in a season is considered by many to be incredibly weak.
- Season 15 is widely regarded as the worst season of the series. The producers had to struggle with several issues beyond their control (such as the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Simon Cowell missing the Live Shows due to a back injury), but many of the biggest problems with the series stemmed from a relatively poor lineup of acts dominated by singers. Fans also felt that the results were too predictable, and the cherry on top was the winner (Brandon Leake) being one of the most polarizing winners in series history.
- Season 18 was, to put it lightly, not popular. Most fans agreed that the Season 17 format wasn't great but had potential if they fixed the issues of the incredibly long audition rounds. They did nothing to fix that, and to add to that, they chose more novelty acts over ones who were far more deserving. Acts who were agreed to have far more potential than those who made it like Duo Just Two Men went home over Three G, who fell three times during their audition. The Golden Buzzers had clearly been reduced to just a novelty due to the fact that there were no Judge Cuts, and making it to the live show was the equivalent of getting a Golden Buzzer. Many fans felt they were just handed out to feel good acts over far more talented acts. The finale was widely agreed to have many of the least deserving acts in the show's history, with the third polarizing winner in the past four seasons.
Shocking Elimination: Especially in Season 4's Vegas round. Kari Callin, Tallan Noble Latz, Ciana Pelekai, The Spiritual Harmonizers, Rashida Jolley, and Kelli Glover, just to name a few.
- The Season 4 act Acrodunk was even stated by the judges to be one of the best acts in the competition and was almost certainly the most entertaining to watch of the season. Even the judges were shocked by their elimination.
- Season 5 semi-finals, week one: Four acts are called to the stage, among them season favorites ArcAttack, decidedly-less-favorite-but-still-likable Future Funk, as well as creepy magician Dan Sperry and mediocre singer Kristina Young. Guess who got through? None of them! Even the judges and Nick couldn't hide their "WTF?" reactions.
- Subverted in the Season 6 semifinals. Anna Graceman and Landau Murphy Jr. were called to the stage during the results, and it was announced that Anna went through. And then, when it seemed like Landau was being exit-interviewed, Nick Cannon told him that he got through too. Cue a huge surprised look from everyone.
- Season 7's Vegas round eliminated fan-favorite opera singer, Andrew De Leon (who cracked under the pressure and failed to complete his performance). It's shocking enough that fans started a petition to get him back on the show via the Wild Card episode. He was later saved by Howie for the Wild Card round and made it as far as the semifinals.
- Speaking of Season 7, the fourth quarterfinal had way too many acts that deserved the four spots, as acknowledged by the judges. It wasn't as much of a Shocking Elimination as a shocking lineup that made shocking eliminations inevitable.
- Season 8's live show eliminations started with Nick calling three acts on stage and announcing that none of them were going through. Twice, eliminating six acts before announcing someone who was voted into the semifinals.
- There was also two acts (Alexander Magala, an acrobatic sword swallower, and Ciana Pelekai, formerly one of Season 4's shock eliminations, as shown above) losing to Marty Brown, who had completely blown it the night before.
- The elimination of crowd and judge favorites, the acrobats KriStef Brothers, while another weak country singer, Jimmy Rose, remained in the competition. In fact, the Top 12 show itself felt weird, with a perfectly block split between the first six acts (all eliminated) and the final six acts (all advanced).
- Season 10 saw the elimination of Siro-A in the semi-finals, after many fans and reviewers had pegged as the favorites to win the season.
- Jayna Brown from Season 11 was seen as a lock for the finals after putting on a stellar performance in semi-finals which was also probably the most warmly received acts by the judges of the night, and she got eliminated in semi-finals
- Season 12's Just Jerk Dance Crew. A fan and judge favorite, they were knocked out of the running surprisingly early on.
- Oliver Graves was a hilarious Deadpan Snarker who was a favorite of both the judges and the audience, he got eliminated in Judge Cuts
- Season 13 contestant Flau'jae. Despite unanimous praise from the judges and a huge throng of fans on social media (Even from the extremely singer critical AGT tag on Tumblr) she was knocked out in the quarterfinals.
- It was believed by many that Season 13's Courtney Hadwin would win Season 13, but she didn't even get into the Top 5.
- Alex Dowis and Greg Morton were both upper tier variety acts who gave excellent as usual performances in the semi-finals but still went home.
- On a more minor note, season 14's V.Unbeatable was expected to be the winner/runner up of the season, but they were only fourth place. Thankfully, they won when they came back for Superstars.
- Matt Mauser was used to promote Season 16, and was a great singer with a heartbreaking story. He was eliminated before the live shows, and lost the Wildcard contest to Storm Large. Even worse, Large's mediocre performance in the live shows proved so underwhelming that she failed to make it out of a generally underwhelming heat.
- Duo Just Two Men only made it to the deliberations phase of 18 despite being some of the most talented acrobats in the season, where there's no small number of them. Even more so considering how Three G made it despite falling multiple times during their auditions, and Phil Wright & Parent Jam made it through despite being a mediocre dance troupe even Howie Mandel thought didn't deserve to be there.
Shocking Moments: Deadly Game's performance in the Finals of AGT: The Champions. After the first half — which was already going through the HSQ — they request all four judges to participate in their act.
Slow-Paced Beginning: A criticism of the removal of Judge Cuts, especially in Season 17, is that they replaced it with more audition rounds creating a stagnant pace. Due to having no cap on auditionees who can go to deliberation, it's hard to be invested in acts early on when you know over half of them having four yeses won't matter.
So Bad, It's Good: Too many contestants to count, which plays a small but significant role in the show's success. Some of these kinds of acts have even made it to the Semifinals.
So Okay, It's Average: Season 10's Derek Hughes, a self-proclaimed "Stand-Up Magician", combines comedy and magic, when in reality... he isn't too fantastic at either. He somehow made it into the final 10 (likely due to his endearing family and how he dedicated his semifinal performance to his sons), using up a slot that could have gone to someone like Freelusion or Sharon Irving. And then, in the Finals, he does a simple rope trick, one of the most basic magic tricks! Howard Stern even remarked that he considered buzzing the performance.
Special Effect Failure: During Season 13's August 21 live show, the door screens on the stage started to malfunction during Samuel J. Comroe's act. They were turned off and kept open through the rest of the show. When The Sacred Riana performed later, the conclusion of the act — where she was pulled up a giant wall trying to escape from evil clones — most likely required the doors for it to work correctly, resulting in a very awkward smash to commercial that left viewers confused over whether something bad had happened.
Squick: Brad Byers putting nine swords in his mouth and then turning them, with the sounds of the swords inside him being clearly audible.
- Brett Loudermilk, another sword swallower, upped the Squick level inherent in this sort of act when he used an endoscope in his semifinal routine.
Tear Jerker: See here.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!
- When one act in a season proves to be popular and makes it very far in the competition, expect many a copycat to show up in the following seasons.
- Greg Wilson performed a stand-up routine in front of the judges in Season 8, which almost all of them loved... minus Howie, who noticed and called Wilson out for directly plagiarizing from comedian Frank Nicotero, who was the warm-up man that day. Unsurprisingly, Nicotero had a nuclear-level reaction both to that and the other judges OK'ing him to go through. The producers had to stop taping and quickly banned Wilson from the Vegas rounds, as well as cut his performance entirely from the show.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- A major weakness with Season 15 was its inconsistent use of guest judges. Eric Stonestreet appeared at the auditions to replace Heidi Klum when she fell ill, but was only able to fill in for her for a single day, causing the panel to revert to three judges. Later, when Simon suffered a severe back injury just before the live shows, he was replaced by a fourth guest judge for the first two heats (with Kelly Clarkson and Kenan Thompson taking this role) only for AGT to revert back to a three-person panel for the rest of the series, which merely drew more attention to Simon's absence ^note.
- After three and a half episodes of impressive auditions from daredevils, danger acts and other performers too big for the AGT stage, AGT Extreme suffered from an incredibly rushed final. A panel of "Superfans" selected two successful auditionees to join the five Golden Buzzer acts in the Final, before these seven acts were put into a second Superfan vote to form a Final Two. Only these final two acts got to perform a second time, rendering almost all the auditions entirely pointless. ^note.
Tough Act to Follow: A literal example: Shin Lim, the winner of Season 13, is considered one of the best acts in the show's history, so a lot of Season 14's acts looked average by comparison.
Uncanny Valley: Not in a bad way, but a number of people, including Howie and Sofia, found season 18's Avantgardey a little scary due to the way they dress themselves like Japanese dolls, with their quirky moves, and their near-perfect synchronization making them seem like creepily unreal. This only adds to their charms, and sets them apart from most other dance groups.
Unexpected Character: Season 2 of Champions brought in the 2018 winners of Myanmar's Got Talent. Myanmar, for those who aren't aware, isn't as big of a country filled with talents compared to the likes of India. Unfortunately, this was seen as We Hardly Knew Ye as they were eliminated in favor of Hans.

YMMV / America's Got Talent

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