See the Mind-Blowing ‘AGT’ Golden Buzzer Act That Made Simon Cowell Break the Rules

Sky Elements team

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s Simon Cowell lighting up the sky as an astronaut as part of Sky Elements’ America’s Got Talent audition for Season 19.

The Dallas-based company programed 1000 drones—combining technology with art—to make a dazzling light display unlike anything ever seen on AGT before. In fact, it was so large ( 00 feet tall by 300 feet wide) that Simon and fellow judges Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum and Sofia Vergara and the audience had to go outside to view it as it lit up the sky over Pasadena.

The company was the idea of Preston Ward and Brian Geck, who became best friends in college when they realized they drove the same car. They began by creating Christmas lights displays using thousands of synchronized lights to music and from there moved on to doing pyrotechnics and fireworks before switching to drone shows.

As the audience stared up at the night sky, Preston had to wait until all 1,000 drones logged in before he was able to launch them. Then the show was on as the drones emulated a NASA launch of a rocket ship into space. And for the space walk, the astronaut featured the face of Simon Cowell. Before ending, the drones formed into the AGT logo.

As they watched, you could hear Sofia say, “I’ve never seen this,” with Howie agreeing with her, and Simon only saying, “Wow!”

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Then as the drones flew away, the audience chanted, “Golden Buzzer. Golden Buzzer.”

“The word is epic," Howie said when it came time to critique the audition. “To see Simon’s face three-blocks wide, it was like a moon landing. That kind of excitement. That was one small step for man and a huge step for AGT.”

“I loved it, too,” Heidi added. “It was like an alien invasion in the beginning when they all came. There were so many of them. It was amazing how you programmed all of them, your imagination, how you thought about the story you are telling, it was beautiful. Really well done.”

And Sofia wished she had been made aware in advance. She said, “Breathtaking. I don’t know where I’ve been, but I didn’t know you could do that with drones. It was spectacular. I wish I had known. I would have brought people that I know to watch it. I would have brought them from Colombia.”

Then it was Simon’s turn. “It was really patriotic and I think the way you told the story, your use of music, whether you’re 3 years old or 100 years old, I think you are going to absolutely love that audition. To every one of you, I want to say bravo.”

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Then he listened as the audience continued to chant Golden Buzzer. Simon looked at his fellow judges and said, “You know, we keep talking about the rules. There is no rule book, which means I am going to do this. Liftoff,” and he hit the Golden Buzzer and fireworks lit up the sky.

Howie called him out, “You already had one,” which Simon had done when he pressed for Liv Warfield earlier that same night.

Simon said, “It doesn’t matter.”

A producer came over and asked Simon what he was doing.

Keep in mind that Simon is also an executive producer on AGT, not just a judge, so he said, “I just thought why not? There’s nothing in the rules that says we couldn’t.”

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To which the producer responded, “Yes, there is.” After thinking about it for a moment, he said, “If you do it, everyone else gets a second,” which made Howie, Heidi and Sofia happy.

Simon ended with saying, “New season, new rules.”

America’s Got Talent airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. Streams next day on Peacock.

Next, Here's the Bottom Line on Season 19 of America's Got Talent