Two Magic Acts Head Into the AGT Season 21 Finale With $1 Million at Stake

PASADENA, California, USA, September 21, 2026 — Two magic acts will take the stage Tuesday night when the America’s Got Talent Season 21 finale begins, with a $1 million prize and a headline spot in the show’s Las Vegas live production at stake.

Hundred Fingers, the 10-man ensemble from Seoul led by Season 17 finalist Yu Hojin, and Geno Ploeger, an Arizona State University senior, are the last magic acts standing from the five that entered the live shows in August. All 10 finalists perform Tuesday, September 22, on NBC. Viewer votes decide the champion, who will be revealed Wednesday, September 23.

Hundred Fingers

Hundred Fingers has not competed since August 18, when judge Howie Mandel used his second Golden Buzzer of the season on the group, sending it past the semifinals. Mandel’s first came at the June auditions, and no act in AGT history had received two from the same judge in a single season. The August routine featured masks transforming into fans, ribbons floating around each performer, and fire illusions.

Yu won the Grand Prix for stage magic at the 2012 FISM World Championships of Magic in Blackpool, becoming the first Asian magician to win a FISM Grand Prix. He is also the champion of SBS’s The Magic Star and toured with The Illusionists.

Season 21 is his third run in AGT competition. In Season 17, Simon Cowell voted no on his solo audition, and Yu has said Cowell told him he needed something bigger. The other three judges sent him through, and after his semifinal performance Cowell told him on live television, “I am officially an idiot.” Yu reached the finale but finished outside the top five, then competed on AGT: Fantasy League.

This season, Yu answered by building a 10-man ensemble. Cowell, who was on the panel for the June audition, told him the act surpassed his Season 17 work.

Geno Ploeger

Ploeger’s road was tighter. He was the last act named to the finale on September 16, after the vote came down to him and singer Travis Garland. He was also the only magician to survive the semifinals. Kameron Marshall and Young & Strange were eliminated.

His semifinal routine, themed around going back to school, was a multi-stage prediction effect that started with a hat bearing the card Mandel had chosen and finished with a word selected by Mel B, painted one letter each on the chests of six of his school friends. Mandel told him on air, “I love you. I love your magic.” Mel B called it her favorite act of the night.

Ploeger, who graduates in December, interned for Season 9 winner Mat Franco. He told Talent Recap that AGT has been “a decade in the making.”

Prior Magician Winners of AGT

Magic has won AGT three times: Franco in 2014, Shin Lim in 2018, and Dustin Tavella in 2021. None of the winners in the last four AGT seasons were magicians, and no magic act reached last season’s finals. The closest since Tavella’s win was Anna DeGuzman, the Season 18 runner-up. Host Terry Crews told Us Weekly that “the power of magic has come through” this season and that he wouldn’t be surprised to see a magician take the prize.

The Lineup and Details

The magic acts face eight other finalists: Golden Buzzer winners Lai Noelle, Nene Royal, and Unitree, and semifinal vote-winners Acro Canine Crew, Come Here, Olivia Befus, Royal Lasers, and Veronika Goroshkova.

Cowell has been away since late August recovering from back surgery, and his fellow judges told TV Insider they don’t know whether he will return for the finale. Mandel, Mel B, and Sofía Vergara judged the semifinals as a trio. Cowell’s return would close a loop for Hundred Fingers, whose ensemble format grew out of his critique.

Both finale episodes run two hours, starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, with episodes streaming the next day on Peacock. Conjurly will cover the finale performances Tuesday night and the results Wednesday.

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Hundred Fingers

Geno Ploeger

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