The sixth episode of America's Got Talent's milestone 20th season in the 2025 TV schedule featured the returns of familiar faces, ranging from singer Austin Brown shortly after his first audition to Yuriyan Retriever making her bold but unsuccessful comeback after her Season 14 debut. The one who hooked me from the very start, however, was Anna Saranina, who previously appeared on AGT in Season 11 as half of a knife-throwing duo with her then-husband. She came back solo to wield crossbows and show off trick shots on stage, and words really can't fully convey the tension of watching her act.
Judge Simon Cowell, as is his wont, had some critiques for the performer who had once dazzled on AGT as part of the Deadly Games duo, but had to change his tune after being on the other side of one of her weapons. While his responses on stage were pretty funny, I continue to love how he and Mel B have reacted to each other this season. Take a look:
Personally, I was more wowed by Anna Saranina catching a crossbow bolt mid-flight than anything else in her act (and don't even want to know if it was a trick of the camera), but the clip from Simon Cowell's critiques onward is worth a rewatch. After Howie Mandel, Mel B, and Sofia Vergara heaped praise on Anna, Simon opined that "this is very slow." Boos echoed from the audience even as he asked where she would go next with her crossbow act as a solo competitor, and she responded with the game-changing question: "You wanna try?"
At first, none of the other judges seemed to even take the invitation seriously, but he didn't decline before the audience started chanting his name, leading Mel B to almost literally facepalm when he jogged up to join Anna on stage anyway. She followed up by asking if he has a "death wish," which... obviously an AGT episode wasn't going to open with Simon Cowell being shot in a sensitive area with a crossbow bolt, but I can see why Mel B would ask the question in the moment!
And I just loved how the former Spice Girl switched back and forth between jokingly encouraging him and seeming to genuinely fear that he made a very bad decision in taking the stage. She was the first of the other three judges to stand up to give Anna Saranina an ovation, and the performer ultimately got a yes from all four of them.
Considering that I was on the fence about how successful AGT would be paired with Destination X for its first season without Heidi Klum since Season 15 in 2020, the revamped team of judges this summer has been a fun surprise. After all, Klum was already a vet when it came to sharing a judges' table with Simon Cowell and Howie Mandel, and I was a fan of the friendship she demonstrated on stage with Sofia Vergara.
But Mel's banter with Cowell in Season 20 so far has been more along the lines of the Spice Girls joke from AGT: Fantasy League than when she walked off the AGT set after a harsh joke from Cowell in 2017. Her commentary on Simon agreeing to stand in front of a crossbow-wielding competitor was just more of what I love from this duo. For more from them as well as Howie Mandel and Sofia Vergara, keep tuning in to NBC on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET or stream next day with a Peacock subscription.
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