Judge Simon Cowell hit his buzzer first in the premiere, after Sofia Vergara teased the contestant.

America’s Got Talent judges repulsed by contestant’s hot dog act, give him first X’s of the season

Judge Simon Cowell hit his buzzer first in the premiere, after Sofia Vergara teased the contestant.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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June 2, 2026 10:00 p.m. ET

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Nolan Ross Palmer on 'America's Got Talent'. Credit:

Chris Haston/NBC

- *America's Got Talent *kicked off season 21 Tuesday.

- Along with stunning acts, there were two that earned the dreaded X from the judges.

- One of them had started out well, when judge Sofia Vergara flirted with him, but her tone changed quickly.

*America's Got Talent *started the season off with some acts that were memorable for the wrong reasons.

While there were impressive knife-throwers, dancing robots, and dancers, there were also the first two acts of the season that inspired judges Mel B, Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, and Sofia Vergara to hit the X buzzer and send them off the stage immediately.

The first recipient was Nolan Ross Palmer, whom Vergara seemed to hit it off with instantly. She bantered with him, "I don't know what you do, but do you do this often?"

"Pretty often," the contestant answered. " I started doing it recently."

"Where do you do it?" the *Modern Family* alum asked coyly, as the audience laughed.

"I know what you’re all thinking," Cowell broke in. "I know what everyone's thinking."

Vergara kept it up: "Do your family and friends know that you're gonna do it?"

Palmer hadn't told them, he said.

"Why? You're embarrassed of it?" she asked.

Then Cowell stepped in and shut it down.

Then he began, and the mood shifted quickly. Palmer started lighting hot dogs on fire and shoving them into his mouth, flames and all. Vergara screamed.

He had eaten about five when Cowell hit his X. The other three judges quickly followed.

'America's Got Talent' judges Howie Mandel, Mel B, Sofia Vergara, and Simon Cowell.

Chris Haston/NBC

"Nolan, you are eating hot dogs on fire," Vergara said. "No wonder you didn’t tell your friends and family. I mean, you’re gonna get major acid reflux in a couple of years.”

Palmer said he already suffers from "bad heartburn."

"I think you have to stop doing it," Cowell advised him.

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The next unlucky contestant to earn the X was Josh Sherman, a professional trumpet player from Las Vegas, who appeared to be a serious musician. But he ended up playing a beet, which he joked made him Beet-hoven. He then played the vegetable with his mouth to produce armpit noises.

He got buzzed by Cowell and Mel B immediately, then Vergara and Mandel.

When Sherman protested that he hadn't had the chance to show what he can do, the audience chanted "one more time."

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He used his second chance to play a very similar song, this time playing "Pink Pony Club" on an apple he called “Ch-apple Roan."

That didn't fly either, with Cowell kicking off a second round of the X.

The consolation was that, as he came off the stage, host Terry Crews informed him that, having received eight X buzzers, he set a record.

*America's Got Talent *airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.

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