We're deep into America's Got Talent season 18, and the competition is getting fierce. Each week, viewers tune in to watch brave contestants attempt to impress judges Simon Cowell, Sofía Vergara, Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel. But one of them hasn't been as vocal as of late.
As fans may know, at the end of the auditions, the quartet delivers feedback and decides if the act will make it to the next round. While episodes at the start of the season featured Simon giving his honest opinion on the NBC competition series, folks noticed that the American Idol alum stopped speaking.
After realizing that Simon was no longer using his voice during presentations, some began to wonder what caused him not to talk on a show that he's famous for speaking on. After doing a bit of research, we managed to uncover what potentially led Simon to stop speaking in certain episodes of AGT.
Why is Simon Cowell not talking on America's Got Talent?
The reason why Simon isn't talking in specific episodes of AGT is due to an unforeseen health issue. In an interview with USA Today, the longtime judge revealed that he lost his voice after he discovered something got stuck in this throat. As a result, he required medical attention and vocal rest.
"I think what happened was the acid from my stomach literally burned my vocal cords," he told the outlet. "So, this doctor came over and put a camera up my nose, down my throat, and I could actually see how badly burnt they were."
"There was so much I wanted to say [about auditions], and I literally could not talk," he continued. "We tried writing things. At one point, I used this kind of iPad device where I had things I’d said before. I tried to use Sofía to translate for me, and she deliberately said the wrong things. So, it was just chaos."
While Simon didn't expect to endure a medical condition this season, injuries on vocal cords are common for those who use their voice for work. The University of Pennsylvania writes that vocal cord strain happens when the muscles and vocal cords are overused. Materials from Penn Medicine indicate that some of the symptoms can include a hoarse voice for more than two weeks, pain in the throat when using the voice, a vocal pitch change or even speech that sounds odd.
As for how to treat a case like Simon's, Penn Medicine recommends the patient undergo speech therapy to strengthen the muscles. The treatment can also be made up of exercises that include breathing control and ways to protect the vocal airways when attempting to swallow.
Though it might seem that the AGT star was quiet for weeks, it was only for a week of filming season 18 episodes. On the upside, Simon discovered that the unique opportunity allowed the rest of the judges to be more open about their thoughts.
“For about seven days, I had to sit there and not say anything, so all I could do was just listen to them. And it was very interesting, because they’ve all got enough confidence now that they have their own preferences,” he told USA Today. “So we probably disagreed more this year, but in a healthy way. You can’t be an expert on everything when you judge this show, because of the variety of acts.”
