The twelfth and current season of “America’s Got Talent” on NBC is currently on its quarterfinals live show phase, and it seemed high time for another event of note to spice up the program, if not the competition. The last incident of note was the death of contestant Brandon Rogers in a car accident; his preliminary audition piece was shown in his memory, but not his Judges Cut performance which he got to do before his passing. In the second quarterfinal round this week, some offstage drama occurred when, while commenting on an eliminated act, judge Simon Cowell made an unflattering reference to the wedding night of fellow judge Mel B.
The end result: Mel splashes her drink at Simon.
Drink to the face
On the episode of “America’s Got Talent” airing Tuesday, August 22, the elimination of escape artist Demian Aditya on account of his act suffering a technical issue seemed to Simon Cowell as a fertile ground to crack a joke with. Unfortunately, he decided to frame the failure of Aditya’s stunt with some really personal stuff to Mel Brown. "I kind of imagine this would be like Mel B's wedding night," began the notoriously sharp-tongued Cowell during his turn at feedback. When he described both events as “a lot of anticipation, not much promise or delivery," the former Spice Girl got up and threw the contents of her large drink tumbler at Simon’s face.
Brown was especially touchy about the subject of her marriage due to being in the middle of divorce proceedings with her second husband Stephen Belafonte. The drink-splashing actually was not new between the two “AGT” judges; during the season’s audition phase Cowell made a crack about Mel (in his opinion) not knowing how to dance yet getting famous in spite of it.
The British celeb got a face full of cold drink that time as well.
This just in: @OfficialMelB has left the building. #AGT
— America's Got Talent (@AGT) August 23, 2017
Brief walk-out
Immediately after the Simon-splashing, Mel B walked out of the set and the show venue for a bit, not returning until after the next commercial break.
Somehow the two judges of “America’s Got Talent” were reconciled in time for the performances to continue as scheduled. After the show Brown remarked in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that she had impressed upon Cowell that anytime he would say something inappropriate regarding her, he risks getting splashed in the face.
That aside, however, the British singer made assurances that on “AGT” her goal is to keep the spotlight on the performers more than on the judges’ personal dramas. On that note, viewers will have to tune in on Wednesday, August 23 at 8 PM ET/PT on NBC to find out which of this week’s quarter-finalists will go on to be semi-finalists.
