After a lively parade for the Emerald Belles on Sunday, all of Southlake held its breath to see what would happen to the drill team on this season’s first judge cut on “America’s Got Talent.”
The drill team made it no secret that they were ready to settle the score with their harshest critic from earlier this season: judge Howie Mandel.
“We have put everything we have into this performance, and we are so ready to prove Howie wrong,” Emerald Belles captain Molly McKinnon told Terry Crews on the episode.
The first seven episodes of season 14 featured countless impressive – and not so impressive – auditions. Of those, 36 acts will make it to the live shows. The five acts who received a Golden Buzzer during auditions have already claimed a spot in the live shows, but the rest who made it through are battling it out in the judge cuts round. During this stage, judge Howie Mandel, Gabrielle Union, Julianne Hough and Simon Cowell are joined by a guest judge.
This week, the guest was country singer Brad Paisley, who made it no secret that he was impressed by the high school drill team. After a stunning jump split to end the Belle’s performance, Brad Paisley jumped to his feet, mirroring Simon’s response to the drill team during their audition.
Simon was also impressed, saying, “OK, somebody is in it to win it!”
While Julianne remarked that it still had a high school element to it and that the drill team needed to step their game up, Gabrielle had nothing but good things to say about the performance.
“I think you actually go a lot better from the first audition, and I definitely think you’re worth fighting for,” she said in the episode.
Howie stuck with his original opinion, stating that the girls didn’t have the level of skill that he thinks is needed to move on in the show. Brad Paisley was quick to disagree.
“They’re amazing and perfect, and Howie can suck it,” he said.
At the end of the episode, teams were called to stand in front of the judges to hear their feedback and find out if they would move on to the live shows. Simon delivered the news.
“You really had some mixed comments, so I’m going to give you the news. I am sorry...” Simon said with a pause. “You have got a lot more rehearsing to do because you will be at the live shows.”
With the Belles moving onto the next round, be sure to tune into NBC on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. “America’s Got Talent” also streams on Hulu.