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Simon Cowell loved this drone show so much, he broke AGT’s golden rule — and we’re so glad he did

Simon Cowell’s never been one to play by the book — but this 'AGT' act pushed him to toss it out entirely

'America's Got Talent' is set to begin production for its 20th season. With the show going on for almost 20 years now, it's needless to say the show has seen its fair share of acts that blow away the minds of the judges as well as the audience. However, every once in a while an act comes that stays with you, breaking the boundaries of what everyone thought was capable of being done. Sky Elements, a drone show company, went interstellar with their performance, literally and figuratively, as they did something that hadn't ever been done on the stage of 'AGT'.

That said, "world's biggest stage" actually proved to be quite small for the 'AGT' Season 19 contestants as they urged the judges and the audience to come out with them. As everyone gathered outside, they looked up into the sky in wonder as the flickering drones all came together with a voiceover of the historic moon landing echoing in the background. As the collection of lights moved together, a voiceover said, "20 seconds and counting..." and as that statement ended, the drones quickly transformed into a spacecraft with a star on top of it. Everyone cheered as the countdown continued.

Then came the iconic line "We have a liftoff," and immediately the spacecraft detached from the launching pad, with the drones making up the pad to transform into clouds. The judges and the audience were in awe; no one had seen anything like this before. As the performance went on, the spacecraft then morphed into an astronaut, surprisingly enough with Simon Cowell's face on it. Everyone cheered in amusement as the astronaut then dissolved into the logo of 'AGT', finally bringing the performance to an end. Sky Elements’ jaw-dropping drone show left the entire ‘America’s Got Talent’ audience in awe. As reported by Sky Elements Drones, just the animation "took more than 150 hours to produce." The crew finally walked on stage with the audience chanting "Golden Buzzer," as everyone applauded. 

Howie Mandell kicked off the judges' comments as he said, "The word is epic, and to see Simon's face, 3 blocks wide, 2 miles long..." One of the members of Sky Elements quipped back. "It was too big for the theater," as everyone laughed. Mandell then continued, "That was one small step for man and a huge step for AGT." It was finally Cowell's turn to speak; clearly impressed, he said, "The way you told the story, the use of music, whether you're three years old or whether you're a hundred years old, I think you're absolutely going to love that audition." As Cowell continued speaking, the audience knew what they wanted as they continued chanting "Golden Buzzer." Cowell thought for a while as he then said, "We keep talking about the rules; there is no rule book, which means I'm gonna do this... Lift off!" as he slammed the Golden Buzzer. 

However, there was a catch: Cowell had already used his one buzzer that each judge is allowed throughout the season. As this went down, a crew member came to Cowell asking what he had done, telling him that if he got two, the other judges would have to get two Golden Buzzers as well. Cowell hesitantly said, "If I had two, you can have two," as the crowd erupted into a cheer, with Cowell finally approaching Sky Elements to greet them. Later, speaking to NBC on the red carpet, Cowell explained his decision, saying, "I wish there was a Golden Buzzer in every episode, I genuinely did. So I basically did it last night."