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America's Got Talent reached the second part of its Live Shows with Quarterfinals 2 on August 20, featuring 11 acts competing for four spots in the next round. Among the performers were Golden Buzzer acts Schumaker, Legión, and the Sky Elements. Ballerina and acrobat Ashlee Montague performed on Castle by Halsey. She advanced through auditions by impressively walking on bottles in ballet flats.
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However, Howie found her Quarterfinal performance similar to what she did in the audition because she walked on the bottles again and didn't add anything more to her existing format. He called her out on this and said that he didn't enjoy it as much.
Fans of America's Got Talent have taken to X to agree and disagree with Howie's statements. Some thought it was insensitive of the judge to make such comments about an act that needed hard work to prepare, while others thought Howie was right when he said it lacked newness.
"Howie why are you being so NEGATIVE oh my god stop being such a hater," one fan said.
"Howie is kind of insane. She fell from the ceiling, walked through fire, stood on her tiptoes on her husband's shoulders, climbed up steps on bottles. What else can she do?" another fan said.
"Does Howie have a hard time understanding how bodies work? That clearly was so much harder to do. Going up the stairs is literally stepping it up! She started doing serial work too," a comment read.
"Howie, she did step it up. You forget that those bottles that were in fire. There was no fire in her audition round," read another.
Some of the other fans of America's Got Talent were with Howie because they too thought Ashlee's performance lacked novelty.
"I agree with Howie again. I was bored," an X user wrote.
"Howie was right. She had an amazing voice, but she didn't raise the bar with that performance tonight," another wrote.
"Make it exciting or worthy of moving on. Which it really isn’t. It’s boring," a Tweet read.
"I admire Ashlee's athleticism and boldness, this was a little boring," another read.
More on Ashlee Montague from America's Got Talent season 19
Ashlee previously appeared in season 9 of the show alongside her dance partner Richard Hankes and the duo was popularly called Richard and Ashlee. They were eliminated in the Judgement week itself, which made Ashlee give this another shot.
For the audition round on season 19 of America's Got Talent, Ashlee did a routine on the song Swan Lake, where she balanced on glass bottles with ballet flats on. For her Quarterfinal performance, Ashlee did a ballet dance before walking on glass bottles again, with pointed toes.
However, this time, the bottles were stacked up a ladder and had a fire pit around them. Impressed with her performance, Simon Cowell gave her a standing ovation, while Howie didn't think the performance fit for the Live Show segment.
The results for Quarterfinals 2 will be announced on episode 12 which will be out on August 21, on NBC, at 8 pm ET.
