Pasadena, California USA, September 15, 2026 – The show was filled with magic as 12 acts took the stage Tuesday night in the semifinals of America’s Got Talent Season 21, including three magicians, each hoping to earn enough of America’s vote to reach next week’s finale.
For the first time this season, there was no Live Golden Buzzer in play — host Terry Crews opened the episode by making clear the voting alone would decide all six advancing spots, telling the audience “you at home are in charge of everything.” Results are set for reveal Wednesday, September 16.
Kameron Marshall
Marshall, with his mother in the audience, built his routine around the idea of planting a thought in someone’s mind so cleanly they believe it’s their own. He walked Sofía Vergara through a chain of imagined choices: colors of cards, suits, and individual cards that narrowed, entirely inside her head, to the Queen of Hearts. Audience members were given blank backed playing cards before the show and asked to draw a random picture on them. They were collected in a clear plastic bag and brought to Vergara, who reached in and pulled out one card. That card matched Vergara’s random selection of the Queen of Hearts.
Taking things a step further, in a callback to his tattoo reveal from his audition, Vergara’s randomly chosen Queen of Hearts matched a tattoo on Marshall’s arm that he said was inked earlier in the week. To top things off, Marshall pulled his sleeve further up, revealing a second tattoo, of a palm tree and crescent moon, matching the audience drawing on the back of the card Vergara had pulled from the bag.
Howie Mandel, a Toronto native himself, joked that the performance proved the most amazing people come from Toronto — a nod to sharing Marshall’s hometown — and said Marshall had gotten better with every appearance on the show. Mel B called it a brilliant performance.
Young & Strange
Young & Strange started with a prediction gone bad after asking Mel B to name any animal you could find in a jungle. She chose lion, and it was revealed that Strange was dressed in a parrot costume instead.
Moving on from the gag, the duo framed their semifinal spot as a business problem: too many new bookings since making the semifinals, and not enough hands to cover them. Their solution was franchising the act itself, and they pulled two children from the audience to train as the “new Young & Strange franchisees.” After a bit built around a prop case that turned out to be empty, the pair walked the kids through a stage illusion. With one child’s grand gesture, the other child vanished from inside the prop case and reappeared waving from the theater balcony.
Sofía Vergara called the routine more comedy than magic but said she still enjoyed it. Mel B said the performance didn’t live up to the duo’s previous outings, prompting Mandel to push back and call her confused.
Geno Ploeger
Ploeger built his act around a back-to-school theme, having recently returned to college in the midst of the AGT competition. He presented a multiple prediction routine, starting by predicting Howie Mandel’s card selection, embroidered on his school baseball cap. He introduced his “homework” from his backpack with four notebooks. He had one notebook among the four selected and asked Vergara to flip to any page. Her page was numbered 15, and Ploeger revealed that 15 was imprinted under the cap’s bill. Mel B blindly circled a word on the selected page and tore the page from the notebook. She revealed her circled word was “future.” Mel B crumpled up the page and handed it to Ploeger, who instantly made it vanish into thin air.
Ploeger turned to the audience and pointed out that he brought classmates with him. The first friend stood and was wearing a matching hat with Mandel’s selected card, the 15 under the brim, and upon removing the hat revealed that Mel B’s crumpled page was now inside his hat. For the climax, the rest of his friends stood and removed their shirts, revealing one letter painted on each of their chests spelling Mel B’s chosen word “future.”
Vergara declared the performance flawless. Mel B called it her favorite act of the night, and Mandel said Ploeger rose to the occasion.
Elsewhere on the night
The magicians weren’t the only standouts. The Acro Canine Crew added a new dog to their act and drew Mandel’s pick as his favorite of the night. Luke Taleno performed fresh off passing his U.S. citizenship test the day before the show, prompting Mandel to tell him he was “making your dream come true.” And the South Korean dance group Come Here earned a full standing ovation call from Mel B, with Mandel naming them his favorite human dance troupe of the season.
Simon Cowell remained absent from the show while he recovers from recent back surgery.
Voting closes Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. Eastern. Conjurly will have the results as soon as they’re revealed.
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