Cowell escapes death to talk ‘AGT’
“America’s Got Talent” has numerous cast changes for Season 14. According to judge Simon Cowell, his participation in a dangerous audition almost made him an unplanned departure.
“I was 1 inch away from being killed,” he says. “I’m not going to go into details of how bad it was, but you’ll see.”
Viewers will have to wait for Season 14 of the NBC variety competition (Tuesday, 8 EDT/PDT) to learn more, although Cowell obviously survived and will be back after a big shakeup between seasons.
Cowell, who also is an executive producer, and “Talent” staple Howie Mandel return as judges, but Mel B and Heidi Klum have departed the judging panel, with actress Gabrielle Union and dancer/actress Julianne Hough taking their seats on TV’s toprated summer series.
Terry Crews, who hosted last winter’s all-star contest, “America’s Got Talent: The Champions,” also will be back, taking over regular hosting duties from Tyra Banks.
Cowell says change is a necessary part of a long-running show and that the departures aren’t meant as a comment on their judging and hosting talent. Those leaving are busy with other projects, he says, as Mel B has a Spice Girls reunion tour, Klum is working on a new Amazon series with Tim Gunn and Banks was “always going to be a one- or two-year deal.”
“It wasn’t like it wasn’t working. Everyone who’s been on the show over the years, judge or host, has done a brilliant job. It’s just one of those shows where I think occasionally they just like to rotate the panel,” says Cowell, who adds that casting changes originate with NBC.
Developments in and revelations about Mel B’s personal life had nothing to do with her leaving, he says: “Oh, no. She was very professional. Whatever was going on in her private life, she never brought to the show.”
As for the new judging talent on “Talent,” Cowell says there’s good overall chemistry.
“With Gabrielle, we spent a couple of hours talking and I really connected with her. She wants to do the show for the right reasons. She’s very interested in the process for discovering talent,” he says.
Hough worked out, too, although there was a brief adjustment period as the “Dancing With the Stars” judge got used to Cowell.
After a couple weeks working together, “I asked her, ‘Have you ever worked for one day on a job where you thought you’d made a big mistake?’ She said, ‘Yes. This job.’ I asked why. She said, ‘You. I didn’t get your sense of humor and then when the producers explained it, I understood it was you kidding around,’ ” he remembers.
As a judge, “she’s very funny, very emotional, very kind. And she loves the talent.”
Cowell says he first met Crews, who also stars in NBC’s “Brooklyn NineNine,” on the first day of filming the “Champions” edition and “we just clicked.”
After the success of the surprise winter hit, “I said, ‘Like it or not, you are now stuck with us,’” Cowell says. “He is great with the contestants and he’s interested in their stories. He has an amazing energy. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Unlike the many cast changes, the program’s structure, which starts with taped auditions and middle rounds before moving to live shows with the top acts in mid-summer, will remain stable.
“It’s pretty much what we’ve always had. It’s worked. Every year, the golden buzzers are becoming more and more impactful,” he says of the devices that allow each judge and Crews to advance one audition hopeful all the way to the live shows.
“That idea came from the ‘Got Talent’ (version) in Germany. When we saw it, we decided to put that in all the shows. It’s become like a trademark, like the X” in “The X Factor,” another Cowell format.
Cowell is mostly mum about this year’s onstage talent, although he says Kodi Lee, a young singer and piano player who is blind and has autism (and was featured in a recent promo trailer for the show) “was incredible. I hope the public will love him and I think they will.”
There also is a competitor called the Human Fuse, who, while wearing a protective suit, is set on fire and launched into the air via a catapult-type structure.
“I thought he was brilliant,” Cowell says, before confessing his fascination with so-called danger acts. “A part of me wants to do it as well. I’ve just got this thing in me at the moment where I want to do danger stunts.”
That’s not likely to happen, for obvious reasons.
“The (show’s) insurance company would have a heart attack about it,” he says. “But I was half-tempted.”