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One button reshapes everything.
The panel stays the same; the format doesn't. One new button changes how every audition round gets watched.
One judge, an instant yes.
Season nine changes at the format level rather than at the judging table. Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, Mel B, and Howie Mandel return as the same panel from the year before, with a full year of chemistry behind them. The real story is the Golden Buzzer's debut — a one-time override for each judge, reshaping how every later season builds its biggest moments. The audition pool runs wide, and the new button gives every panel reaction more weight.
The #08 slot.
Slot #08 of 21 in the America's Got Talent Editor's Canon. Season nine is defined by what changes at the format level rather than at the judging table. Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, Mel B, and Howie Mandel return as the same panel that formed the year before, now with a full year of chemistry behind them. The real story is the Golden Buzzer's debut — a mechanic that gives each judge a one-time override, and one that reshapes how every subsequent season builds its biggest moments. The audition pool runs wide, and the new button gives the panel's reactions a weight they didn't carry before.
4 moments, no spoilers.
- Auditions · the first-ever Golden Buzzer
The show's now-signature mechanic debuts this season, letting a judge override a split vote and send an act straight through — Howard Stern presses the first one in the format's history, for karate-demonstration duo Dustin's Dojo.
- Auditions · a second buzzer, a different act
Howie Mandel presses his own buzzer for comedy-rap duo Emmanuel & Phillip Hudson's original song 'Ratchet Girl Anthem.'
- Auditions · a circus act earns the third buzzer
A Cyr wheel acrobatic act earns the season's third buzzer press, extending the new mechanic to a third judge in its debut year.
- Format · one buzzer each
For the first time, every judge at the table has an individual buzzer to use once during the audition rounds — the mechanic that becomes the format's signature going forward.