Spoiler alert! This story discusses America’s Got Talent’s live performance show from August 18, which can be streamed with a Peacock subscription if you haven’t seen it.
AGT Season 21 has officially gone live. The auditions are over, the unprecedented callback round has come and gone, and now we get to see new acts from the 43 performers our esteemed judges have deemed the best this season has to offer. The first 11 of those performed Tuesday, and while there were definitely some surprising acts, I was more shocked to see Howie Mandel sacrifice his body to hit the Golden Buzzer for one performance.
While each judge and host Terry Crews were given two Golden Buzzers in the auditions, only Howie Mandel had the power as the first night of America’s Got Talent’s live quarterfinals hit the 2026 TV schedule. He was grateful he did, as the Hundred Fingers magicians from South Korea took the stage to give a performance that was even bigger and more impressive than the one that earned them a Golden Buzzer in the first place.
You can see their new act below:
Howie Mandel couldn’t even maintain his composure — heck, even Simon got out of his chair for a rare standing ovation — and the comedian flung himself onto the table at the Golden Buzzer, accidentally activating his own red X in the process.
Terry Crews called it “the craziest Golden Buzzer we’ve ever had,” asking Howie Mandel what he was thinking as he sacrificed his body to send Hundred Fingers straight to the finals. Mandel stammered:
I wasn’t thinking. I was just, it was the best thing, and I wanted to press the Golden Buzzer. I wanted to press everything. I thought that was a winning performance right there, and they deserved… That could have been a final performance. That was a million-dollar performance.
Those are some strong words, and don’t think for a second that Howie Mandel or any of the other America’s Got Talent judges were taking it easy on the performers just because they’d made it to the live shows. Earlier in the episode Mandel had even asked Simon Cowell if they were still allowed to hit their red buzzers during the quarterfinals when he became bored with one act.
Howie Mandel was the one who gave Hundred Fingers their Golden Buzzer in the auditions, too, but the judges were putting a huge emphasis on which performers had taken their notes and improved their acts for the quarterfinals.
Hundred Fingers did just that, putting in a lot of work to go bigger, incorporating fans, fire, more choreography and drama into their sleight of hand act. Yu Hojin said they had rehearsed 15 hours a day, six days a week in hopes of earning redemption. The magician previously competed solo on Season 17, and when Simon Cowell told him to go bigger, he listened, forming what he called a “magic supergroup.”
We’ll definitely be seeing these magicians again in the AGT finals. Hopefully Howie Mandel’s body will be fully recovered by then in case he has another unexpected reaction. In the meantime, tune in at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, August 19, on NBC to see which three incredible Season 21 acts are moving on to the semifinals.
