Simon Cowell is amazed by Aidan Bryant on America’s Got Talent: All-Stars. (Photos: NBC)
The first part of America’s Got Talent: All-Stars finals took place on Monday, and among the 11 acts was a “redemption-seeking” contestant, one many viewers believe should have won two years ago: Aidan Bryant, season 16 runner-up.
In 2021, Bryant, a small-town teenager who taught himself Cirque du Soleil-caliber stunts by studying YouTube and swinging from sheets tied to trees in his backyard, seemed in the best shot of winning this year’s 1st place – Win a million dollar prize and Las Vegas residency. But after the closest final vote in AGT history, the championship shockingly went to underdog magician Dustin Tavella instead. Fans were disappointed, but not nearly as disappointed as Bryant himself.
Bryant, who was 16 when he first competed, admitted earlier this All-Stars season that when the season 16 finale was about him and Tavella, he left studio audiences with an overwhelming Hearing the majority “yell my name” he thought to himself, “Oh, I did that” – and he was then “devastated” when he lost. Judge Simon Cowell also recalled the young acrobat being “in pieces” after his defeat, telling Bryant, “I’ve never seen anyone look so gutted in my life. And I remember going up to you afterwards and saying, ‘I promise you, this isn’t the end.'”
And Cowell was right. This week, Bryant appeared in the coveted “Pimp Spot” on Monday’s episode, and the show definitely saved the best for last. Bryant’s routine was so perfect, so dangerous, that Cowell blurted out some sort of obscenity on national television. (An AGT logo was conveniently plastered over Cowell’s swearing maw by NBC censors; this is a family-friendly show, after all.)
“I am literally looking for [presumably PG-rated] Words now,” explained a stunned Cowell. “I liken it to one of those moments when I was a kid and I was watching the Olympics … and the judges just said, ’10, 10, 10, 10, 10.’ That’s how it felt to me. I’ve never, ever, ever seen anything so incredible, and so dangerous, and so brilliant, and so well-coordinated, in a movie, on this show, anywhere. … I think you just completely changed everything after that performance.”
The story goes on
Bryant could very well make it into the winners’ circle this time, but his biggest rival ahead of next week’s All-Stars grand finale will be blind and autistic music expert Kodi Lee, winner of AGT Season 14. Lee served four years an instant sensation ahead of his Golden Buzzer audition of Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” which became the US series’ most viral moment ever with more than 430 million online views; He’s been headlining Vegas ever since and has an even more loyal following. This week, Lee delivered a gritty, haunting, and all-round exquisite rendition of David Bowie’s Heroes, which Cowell gushed, “It was just stunning – frankly, stunning. And I mean boy, that lyrics took on a whole new meaning for us in that moment. … At every performance there is only silence. Everyone is focused and listening to every word.”
While it may seem like either Bryant or Lee will lose to the competition, all of the finalists brought their A-game on Monday. The Detroit Youth Choir, which hosted Terry Crews’ Golden Buzzer Pick at the All-Stars season premiere, was “by far the best choir I’ve ever seen,” according to judge Heidi Klum, who along with the rest of the jury shared her delighted was triumphant performance by Panic! At “Hey Look Ma I Made It” at the disco.
Howie Mandel’s golden buzzer pick, Ukrainian dance group Light Balance Kids dazzled with an intensified routine that Mandel described as “one of the most exciting live performances I’ve seen,” but Howie also predicted that Cowell’s golden buzzer recipients Mike E. Winfield could become the first comedian to win AGT.
British crooner Tom Ball (aka “Susan Boyle’s grandson”), the group’s this year’s Golden Buzzer Pick, delivered a baroque, super-melodramatic version of Radiohead’s misfit anthem “Creep,” which earned a standing ovation from the judges and Cowell raved: “Everything about it was just amazing because it was one of those performances that wasn’t supposed to work but it did, and it was really powerful and moving.”
And finally, another fan-favorite acrobatic number, the Bello Sisters’ hand-balancing trio, performed a treacherous, “brilliant and beautiful” tour de force that, according to Cowell, “was everything this finale should have” and gave them a real ” shot for victory.”
All of these contenders could take the title, but the judges won’t have a say in next week’s finals – and, frustratingly, neither will viewers at home. Instead, the winner of the very first season of America’s Got Talent: All-Stars will be decided by a mysterious elite group of supposed “superfans” watching the (pre-recorded) finale from afar. And during this season, the superfans have made some confusing decisions, so really anything could happen. But it should be noted that Aiden Bryant’s former nemesis Dustin Tavella didn’t even make the All-Stars finals this year — so whether or not Bryant wins next Monday’s All-Stars, he’s already found his redemption.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
“Susan Boyle’s grandson” makes Simon Cowell “angry” in “AGT: All-Stars”
‘AGT’ All-Stars Tone the Chiefrocca, Aidan Bryant return to settle the score: ‘I really want to win and I’m here to prove it’
One of the biggest reality TV hits of all time was cut in the early shocker of AGT: All-Stars: “Never thought that”
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