High stakes behind the scenes at ‘AGT’ live show
Executive producer Simon Cowell says live broadcasts of show’s later rounds adds a desired edge.
LOS ANGELES – Just a couple of hours before the season’s first “America’s Got Talent” live performance show, the fifth-floor lobby of Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre – transformed into a contestant holding area – buzzes with activity but no sense of panic.
Young rapper Flau’jae, who has just finished a dress rehearsal with 11 other acts competing in the NBC reality competition (Tuesday, 8 p.m. EDT/ PDT), sits at one of 16 makeup tables getting touch-ups; 16-year-old singer Amanda Mena is just a few seats away. She observes the professional artfully blending color on her eyelids, picking up makeup tips she can use later.
Nearby, magician Shin Lim contemplates a nerve-soothing catnap after a quick meal, salad in a plastic container, while comedian Vicki Barbolak takes a selfie video with two members of The PAC Dance Team in front of an “AGT” photo backdrop.
“That’ll get a lot of votes,” Barbolak says.
Considering the pressure – performing live for the Dolby audience and millions of viewers at home in a bid to be one of seven acts that survive Wednesday’s results show – the mood is surprisingly calm among the 12 acts, the first of three quarterfinal groups. But scratch the surface, and it’s a different story.
“I felt like I was performing for the judges in the (taped) auditions and Judge Cuts, but this time it feels like I’m performing for America, and all of America is watching my hands, and that can be daunting,” says Lim, ready with an elaborate card trick. “The pressure is way higher this time.”
Barbolak is nervous as she ponders
performing for a live TV audience that she calculates is 36,000 times bigger than her usual stand-up crowd.
“That’s the math we’re up against with my brain,” she jokes as juggling artist Mochi spins a glowing green diabolo a few feet away. But Barbolak has a plan. “I’ve gotten so many sweet notes from people who tell me they’ve been through bad times and I’ve cheered them up. I’m just going to concentrate on them the rest of the afternoon. I think that will calm me down.”
Live broadcast of the later rounds adds a desired edge, says “AGT” executive producer and judge Simon Cowell.
“It’s such a different experience doing it live in two hours than a 10-hour taping (for the earlier, pre-recorded rounds), where everyone’s talking so long (and) it takes so long to set up each act,” Cowell says after the show. “The (live show) pace, the fact it can go wrong, gives it a whole different energy.”
Tension is higher for a live show because there’s no “take 2” when an act fails, as happened in 2016, when stuntman Ryan Stock was accidentally hit in the neck by a flaming arrow, or last year, when a technical glitch undermined illusionist Demian Aditya’s fiery coffin escape.
Cowell delights in the uncertainty. “We could pre-record it, but it’s all those things that can go wrong, and sometimes do, that make the live shows better.”
Structurally, live shows aren’t that different for performers, who don’t get do-overs in earlier taped rounds (unless Cowell suggests a change), but the psychological dynamics change, says executive producer Jason Raff, who oversees all production details with fellow executive producer Sam Donnelly.
“The amount of pressure they are under is unimaginable. That have one shot in front of 13 million people to do their performance, not to forget the lyrics, to make sure they’re in the right place at the right time,” Raff says Thursday from North Hollywood, where he and Donnelly are overseeing set preparations for the next live show.
For the nearly 300 crew members and production staff who work on a live show, there’s a huge difference, since elaborate sets and staging must be arranged within minutes and the show will go on whether or not they’re ready.
“You have a stressed-out crew of stagehands who need to make sure all those props, in 31⁄ minutes (of commer
2 cial break), end up where they’re supposed to end up, everything plugged in right, everything set up so the danger acts don’t go wrong,” Raff says. “There’s this unbelievable sense that everything could go wrong. When everything goes right, like it did Tuesday, it is actually quite remarkable.”
Meticulous production planning is evident early in the day during a
21⁄ 2- hour almost-full dress rehearsal. Host Tyra Banks wears a blue velvet robe, and four stand-in judges critique the performers.
“AGT” is more challenging to produce live than a show with only singers or dancers because of the constantly changing, often elaborate staging re- quired for a mix of dance groups, giant choruses, escape artists, jugglers and other hard-to-categorize acts.
During dress rehearsal, the confined backstage wing space becomes a giant Jenga game as black-clad crew members rearrange platforms, pillars and water tanks to accommodate each act. The atmosphere suddenly comes to a halt with the sound of loud hissing. It’s a glass-enclosed case of 22 rattlesnakes that’s part of Lord Nil’s escape act.
Once producers, crew and even a shirtless Lord Nil stop to look, it’s back to work as the case is moved onto the set and dance group Junior New System’s background bleachers are rolled backstage, pushed up against Trevi Fountain statuary used by the water-spouting Human Fountains. As the crew works, Flau’jae warms up her voice just a few feet from Shin Lim’s card table adorned with cards, dice and poker chips.
Although most of Tuesday’s show is broadcast live, “AGT” tapes a few elements to overcome logistical barriers as it squeezes 12 acts into 90 minutes.
Two of the 12 quarterfinalists – the giant Angel City Chorale, which gets the vast fourth-floor lobby as its own holding area and sibling band We Three – are taped an hour or so earlier. There’s just no way to get all 150 chorale members in place within the show’s time limits, and the We Three pre-taping buys time to ensure that all safety precautions are taken setting up Lord Nil’s water tank and snake case, producers say.
As an extra cushion, Banks delivers the show’s opening 10 minutes early, before the show shifts to diabolo artist Mochi performing live.
She marvels at the stage team’s precision. “I do not understand how the crew changes the set over from some death-defying act to singers to some crazy dancers in heels. And they’re not running and sweating and yelling. They’re just so smooth, dressed in black,” she says.
Producers arrange the order of the acts to make the best use of time, but the unusual range of acts add novel planning concerns.
“Now, you’re dealing with water and spitting. How are we going to clean it up? Who’s coming next? A dance group. Are they going to slip on the water?” Raff says.
During the show, those concerns extend beyond the stage after judge Howie Mandel, imitating Human Fountains, spits out water and judge Mel B then hits him with a spray of H2O.
Later, famously germophobic Mandel won’t comment on the mess until after “I go home and get disinfected.”
The live show ends on a rousing note as Hadwin delivers a driving rendition of James Brown’s “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and an elated Cowell hugs Mandel, who gave the British teen a Golden Buzzer.
Banks closes the show right on time – about nine hours after the performers arrived for hair and makeup – and Cowell and Mandell walk onto the stage to talk to Hadwin.
But that’s just the end of the live broadcast as judges and competitors head for a post-show red carpet and editing teams craft video packages that will keep them working into the wee hours. And that’s just one live show; 12 more acts already are in early rehearsals preparing for the next Tuesday.
“We have people who work on our show who do huge awards shows, the Grammys, the Oscars, and even they’re like, ‘I can’t believe we do this every single week,’” Donnelly says.
The seven acts from Tuesday’s show that advanced to the semifinals are: We Three; Barbolak; Mena; Hadwin; Lim; Angel City Chorale; and Junior New System.
“The amount of pressure they are under is unimaginable. That have one shot in front of 13 million people to do their performance ...” Jason Raff executive producer