AGT judge Howie Mandel jumps from his seat in horror after acrobats suffer horrific accident in front of live audience
HOWIE Mandel and fellow America’s Got Talent judges were shocked and fell silent after an acrobatic performance went wrong.
At the season 18 premiere of America’s Got Talent, an appearance left all the judges and the audience silent.
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Sofiia Tkachuk, Olena Vykhovanets and Dana Karpovych make up the acrobatic group ThreeG.
The talented trio are originally from Ukraine and Olena is credited with putting the group together.
They’ve all been doing acrobatics all their lives, but have only been a trio for two years.
Their performance started out sexy and strong as they ditched their brightly colored blazers in favor of a more aerodynamic outfit.
Within seconds, Sofiia was balancing on Dana and Olena on Sofiia.
After positioning themselves in a gravity-defying position, the women’s tower began to tremble.
It wasn’t long before Olena fell to the ground on Sofiia.
The fall caused gasps and screams from judges Howie, 67, and Sofia Vergara, 50, who physically turned away from the stage.
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The strong and determined women stood up and brushed it off, but even AGT veteran Simon Cowell, 63, seemed nervous they would go ahead.
IT’S NOT OVER
The women then performed a flawless maneuver in which Olena was thrown several meters into the air.
Then the group’s second acrobatic stunt was performed and they pulled it off. It was very well received by the jury and the audience.
Heidi Klum, 49, and the other judges began clapping in awe before the performance.
Unfortunately it didn’t last long.
A large and thick mat was brought onto the stage and it was clear that the women would perform a very dangerous stunt.
On their first attempt, the women fell so hard that Howie jumped out of his seat in fear.
The audience gasped collectively and several spectators could be seen with horrified faces.
But the women were determined – so they tried again.
Before they began, Howie attempted to stop the performance by speaking to the other judges, saying, “I can’t watch this, folks.”
On the second try, Sofia began silencing the onlookers, who then began clapping to cheer them on.
The women fell again for the last time. They looked disappointed but did their best to smile for the audience.
THE CONSEQUENCES
For the most part, the women appeared to be doing well after their daring antics – but Sofiia had to hobble off the stage.
AGT host Terry Crews, 54, said they had “incredible courage” and received a standing ovation from the crowd and judges.
Simon and Howie asked Sofiia if she was okay and she replied: “It’s fine” before crying in disappointment.
Howie told them: “It doesn’t matter that you fell. What matters is that you got up and kept trying and trying and trying.”
Simon said to them: “I can see how disappointed you are. The act has shown us more about you than anything else in my opinion, because lesser people would have simply given up. And you didn’t.”
In the end, the trio survived the selection process with a unanimous “yes” from the jury.
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