America’s Got Talent welcomed a new guest judge for Tuesday’s auditions. With Heidi Klum out sick — with what turned out to be a cold and not coronavirus, which was a concern for her at the time — Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet filled in for an exciting night of performances alongside his former co-star, Sofia Vergara.
“Unfortunately, Heidi Klum is feeling under the weather today, but luckily Sofia was able to pull a few strings,” host Terry Crews said, before introducing the special guest judge.
“I solved the problem for today!” Vergara said excitedly. “I called one of my friends!”
Stonestreet — who starred alongside Vergara on Modern Family for 11 seasons — was thrilled to be a part of the fun.
Stonestreet exclaimed, after his introduction, “I’m a fan of the show, so this is incredible. I can’t wait to see what America’s got tonight! I’m so pumped!”
Vergara, meanwhile, was thrilled to bring “my new family and my old family together!”
As his very first move behind the judges table, Stonestreet was encouraged to press the big red buzzer, and was startled at how loud and aggressive the buzz really is.
Stonestreet sat in for Klum after the longtime AGT host — who made her return to the show this season after taking season 14 off — called out sick.
This episode was shot amid the growing coronavirus outbreak, and was one of the last episodes of the season featuring an audience, as preventative measures were taken before shutting production down completely.
Earlier this month, 360aproko spoke with Simon Cowell regarding the audition rounds, and he explained how the show tried to push through until that was no longer an option.
“When we first started, we had a full audience, and then day by day, you know, things started to get worse, so we went nine days with an audience and then we had to do two days without an audience, which we’d never done before,” Cowell recalled. “By day 11, we just went OK, it really, really isn’t safe now.”
Meanwhile, Klum and her husband, Tom Kaulitz, were both concerned that they may have contracted COVID-19. After the pair quarantined, separately, and were tested for the illness, both tests came back negative.
