After being underwhelmed with Los Angeles, my luck had recently turned on a solo-trip to Hollywood.
Walking downtown on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on a Wednesday, I noticed a cut-out of Simon Cowell by the Dolby Theatre. Upon entering, without any reservations, I was then whisked into the line to answer a COVID questionnaire and show proof of vaccination — and eventually scored tickets to Row K of the final performance of America’s Got Talent in Los Angeles.
Upon getting settled towards the back of the Dolby Theatre, I was happy and content with the free ticket, but even more ecstatic when the host requested me to move towards the front of the theater. Happily, I obliged as they moved to the FRONT-ROW to watch Idina Menzel perform for the pre-show recording, and then dismissed be back to Row K once the pre-show recording was completed.
Just slightly disappointed, I was still overly content to have scored free tickets to the finale, but luck continued to be on my side. Because I was wearing a dark polo shirt and attending individually, the host re-sought me out, and she again asked me to follow her to the front of the theatre. I was stationed in the 3rd row to the left, directly next to the entrance of Simon, Heidi, Sofia, and Howie!
The next 2 hour for the finale were absolutely unforgettable, especially as AGT is one of my favorite shows. The highlights from the evening certainly included the Northwell Nurse Choir singing “Stand By You”, to watching George Lopez get his head shaved, to watching Pentatonix perform with 9 year old Victory Brinker, and finally watching Jimmie Herrod and Idina Menzel singing “Defying Gravity.” Absolutely excellent!
However, behind the scenes, some of the TV magic is lost like with Dustin Tavella’s winning of $1 Million. His performance at the AGT Finale was highly staged (ie: rigged). Being in the crowd, we witnessed fabrication of TV where the crewmembers strategically placed the teddy bears into the crowd before the performance, noticed Howie’s “magic word” of “Be Kind” placed on the tag of the bear, and Sofia messing up which bear to keep versus throw away. At the end, the crew instructed the audience to leave the bears to donate to Toys for Tots, so the show could get a write-off for the donation. Unfortunately, this display showed that AGT is just a staged game show.
Despite the complaint about the magic this, this was an absolutely incredible, free experience where I was upgraded from the back of the auditorium to the front-row. I enjoyed hearing many of the famous singers like Pentatonix and Idina Menzel. The excitement and performance were truly great to be there live. Not a bad first few days in Los Angeles — and another great stop on this grand adventure!
Thanks for the behind-the-scenes look at AGT! Reality TV doesn't have much reality in it 😜
Wow! I bet not a lot of people can say that they have experienced this before. I watch it on YouTube, does that count? Haha