The actress was a fan, while her costar Mel B was not.

AGT audience turns on Sofia Vergara for questioning how ‘silly’ comedy singer made it to semifinals

The actress was a fan, while her costar Mel B was not.

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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September 15, 2026 11:48 p.m. ET

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‘America’s Got Talent’ judge Sofia Vergara. Credit:

Trae Patton/NBC

- Tuesday’s semifinals episode of *America’s Got Talent* featured a divisive performance from comedy singer Cesar Dias.

- While judge Sofia Vergara enjoyed the performance, she marveled that he’d made it so far in the competition.

- The audience’s vote will determine the fate of the contestants.

Sofia Vergara was a big fan of comedy singer Cesar Dias on Tuesday’s episode of *America’s Got Talent**.*

The actress’ fellow judge Howie Mandel explained to Dias after his (deliberately) awkward performance of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” that he was observing Vergara and she loved every moment.

“I said it last time: You’re a clown,” Mandel noted. “And now the surprise is kinda over, as far as what’s gonna happen, but I’ll tell you what the joy is: The joy is looking over at Sofia’s face, and seeing the tears and the laughter and the joy that you are putting on that woman’s face is worth more than a million dollars” — alluding to the show’s grand prize.

Mandel then told Vergara, “I’ve never seen you laugh so hard. I’ve never seen you enjoy yourself more. And that’s a gift. That’s priceless.”

Vergara clearly appreciated the hard work that made Dias look so bad.

“Well, I guess I have the same feeling like the rest of America that voted for him,” the *Modern Family* alum said. “We just want to laugh at silly, simple things that shouldn’t be on *AGT*, but we don’t know how they have made it to the semifinals.”

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That’s when the audience turned on Vergara, booing her suggestion that Dias didn’t belong.

The third judge on the panel, Mel B (fourth judge Simon Cowell was out again), invited more boos when she offered her take on the funny guy. Her words weren’t as positive.

“I said the first time I saw you, you reminded me of Peter Sellers,” the former Spice Girl said. “And I know it’s your schtick, but I think you could just do so much more. I think you’re better than what you did. You could’ve chosen a better song and had more things go wrong. I feel like you stepped it down and didn’t step it up. I’m sorry.”

‘AGT’ host Terry Crews with Cesar Dias.

Trae Patton/NBC

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The judges said several times during the evening that the audience had tough choices ahead of them. Just six of the 12 acts competing will make it through to next week’s finals, where they’ll face four more acts that have received Golden Buzzers.

Voting is open until Wednesday at 7 a.m. ET/4 a.m. PT.

*America’s Got Talent* results will be revealed Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and stream the next day on Peacock.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Reality”