No one can dish out a tough critique quite like Simon Cowell, and such was the fate for Eric Chien on America's Got Talent: All Stars.
The magician returned to the show to prove himself to the judges after perfecting his skills, but he had a particular bone to pick with Simon.
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He explained that the TV veteran challenged him to up his performances and make them "big," and by sticking to his preferred close-up magic, it cost him his spot in the competition.
Eric aimed to impress Simon and the rest of the judges with his impressive close-up magic routine, with Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel clearly quite taken with the young talent.
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However, the dad-of-one still wasn't convinced, and while he gave them their plaudits, he still felt like it wasn't what he was looking for.
"I like big magic, these guys love small magic. So I thought it was cute," he said, immediately receiving a barrage of boos from the audience.
Simon's critique for Eric's performance elicited boos from the audience
He did reassure Eric that regardless of his take, it wasn't up to him, as the decision lay in the hands of the AGT superfans for the last spot in the finals.
This isn't the first time this season that Simon disagreed with his fellow judges, with the same taking place after the second audition episode with mentalist Peter Antoniou.
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Howie immediately proclaimed his love for the act before it even started, which entailed the magician reading the minds of his subjects.
For this, he chose Howie, host Terry Crews, and a random member from the audience, and sought out to answer their questions one by one.
The TV judging icon is no stranger to disagreeing with his judges
However, before he could finish, he received the dreaded red X from Simon, leaving Peter rattled, and receiving the critique from Simon that his "showmanship" was lacking.
Even after the psychic left the stage, the three huddled for a heated discussion on the matter, and Peter joked to Terry that he was buzzed because Simon was "scared of what I know about him."
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