- This is Mariah Gello from The Hollywood Reporter.
and I'm in studio today with Mel B and Simon Cowell.
- Yes. - Thank you so much
for being here.
- Thank you, Mariah. - Thanks for having us.
- We're here to talk about America's Got Talent, new season.
- Season 13.
It's a very scary, spooky season,
where the talent is incredible.
- And I'm very superstitious, actually.
- Me too, that's why I get scared.
- No, I am. I count all the time.
- I don't like anything turning up to be 13.
So this is kinda weird for me.
- You think there might be some scary surprises
- There is. - There are.
- ahead? - And one came after me and I
ran offstage stage screaming, it was that (overtalking).
- We were haunted this year. - Yeah.
- Oh, no. - You'll see.
- All right. I'm ready for it.
So let me ask you guys a few questions.
What makes you cry tears of joy, what kind of acts?
- Well, I've cried a lot this season.
- You have cried a lot this year.
- I have, because there's been some really emotional
stories, and I feel what the contestants are feeling too,
their nerves and if something goes wrong,
their disappointment.
So I think this season I have -- all season it's
very, very feel-good.
(Simon laughing)
Oh, I can't talk now, stop it.
He does this thing to me, like, he makes me feel
awkward, and I'm not awkward.
- Is there anything -- - You said tears of joy.
What makes you happy?
- Well, that's it, it's tears of joy and seeing
them succeed and their dreams comes true
and just seeing them live that dream.
- You like the whole
rollercoaster ride? - Yes, I do.
- We have nice people turn up on this show.
- We do.
- They do. And they kinda lay it all out on the line.
- They're inspiring to you? - Yeah.
- Is there anything you'd rather not see?
- Yes. People that do that thing with their eyelids
and they stick things through their nose and stick things
through their body.
No, I don't like that at all.
- I like most things.
- You like danger. He likes it when (overtalking).
- Yeah, I like the dangerous acts.
Yeah, we see everything.
So there's not one thing.
I don't like cruelty to animals.
- No. - Okay.
- So we're kind to animals on this show.
- Even though we have a lot of them on there,
they're well looked-after.
We have alligators this year, scorpions.
- [Mariah] What? - Yeah.
- [Mel B] Singing cats.
- [Mariah] Scorpions? - Big alligators. Yeah.
- Can you train a scorpion?
- No. - Okay.
- That was the whole point.
- Or an alligator. But we had them.
- What makes you laugh the most on the show?
- Comedy. - Yeah. The comedians.
- Because when they get it right, it's really,
really funny.
And I love a good belly laugh.
- [Simon Cowell] Belly laugh. - Love it. Shut up.
- Mel finds the comedians funny.
- I do.
- I find them really not funny.
- Because I don't think you get their jokes.
- No, I don't understand (overtalking).
I like the things that go wrong,
that's what makes me laugh.
- Right, right. When it's awkward.
- When it's unintentionally funny, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah. Can you sense authenticity in people?
- Yeah. - Yes.
- You guys are good at that. - Because we see a lot
of different acts,
- a variety of different acts, and we see different things.
And I ask myself sometimes, how are they even doing that
and where -- stop it -- and how do they come up with this?
He's looking at me that strange way.
Tell him to stop.
- I'm listening to you.
- Don't listen to me. - I can.
I have a good radar for when they're not authentic.
So I've done these shows a long time
and you know when someone's playing you or the audience.
I can normally detect that.
- Do you forgive that though, if the talent is great enough?
Because, like, there's stories about Barbra Streisand,
kind of in her early days, kind of being more naive
than she really was.
- In what way? - [Mel B] But naive is fine.
- [Mariah] You know, like going to an audition
and seeming like you don't know what you're doing,
and all the sudden you belt it out.
- Well, it's just playing a little bit of a game.
And that's not bad. - Yeah. That's not bad.
- It's when it comes from not a very good place,
or their mothers or their - [Mariah] Right, okay.
That's different. - parents push them
on the stage.
- Yeah, that's very true.
When we see these -- we had one the other day,
and it's all about the stage mom.
- Yeah, it was more about her.
- And the kid doesn't want to be there.
That's uncomfortable.
- Right, right. Can you give some advice to people
who are coming on the show, like --
- Just got for it.
- How to look sharp on camera?
- Go for it and just practice.
Practice makes perfection.
- I would say don't be a second-rate version of
what we've seen before.
If we've seen something unique, you don't want to
see a kind of worse version of that next time.
- What do you call that, a karaoke version?
- Yeah. I like it when you're surprised, you know,
when you're not expecting someone to be good
and they are good.
It's when someone's seen something already and
they try and do it again.
It's like, it's not going to be a surprise.
I find that boring.
That's why the show works.
- Like Susan Boyle was a good example years ago.
- [Mel B] Unexpected, yeah.
- Yeah. And we didn't expect her to be good,
and she was amazing. I loved that.
- [Mel B] Yeah.
- And Simon, are you going to watch American Idol
this year, have you been watching?
- Is it on?
(laughing)
- Oh, that was a good answer.
- Actually, truthfully, no I'm not.
I'm genuinely not interested.
I think when we were on it years ago it was
a funny show.
- Yeah.
- You know, it was different.
Again, it was kinda naive.
Lots of surprises.
Now, we were talking about doing it again.
But I kinda think we've been there, I've been there.
Time for something new.
- Yeah. Well, here we are, a new season.
- And we have some good singers on the show this year.
- Really good.
- Interestingly, on Britain's Got Talent and
America's Got Talent, I think we get better singers
now on the Got Talent shows than the other singing shows.
I don't know what it is.
- That's true, actually. - Well, that's fantastic.
- And you're a very good singer as well, aren't you?
- Are you?
- Yeah, I'm great.
- She's amazing.
- Well, thank you so much for being here.
- Am I missing something?
- That's... - Great singer.
- Well, there you go. - Bye, you guys.
- You put your seal of approval. Done.
- America's Got Talent. Let's do it.