Spoilers for this week’s AGT

The rule on AGT for many years has been that each judge can press the golden buzzer exactly once, to instantly send an act through to the finals.

However, after a particularly impressive act involving drones, Simon Cowell pressed it, for a second time this season. You can see a crew member (possibly a Standards and Practices officiant) coming up to him and asking what he’s doing it. It’s clearly cut down from the full conversation, but it ends with him declaring that All 4 judges get 2 Golden Buzzers each for the remainder of the season.

Nothing against the drone act, they absolutely deserved it, but as far as I’m aware, any broadcast prize-giving competition has to has rules locked in long before filming even begins and changing rules on the fly during an episode is a big no-no with any S&P compliance ensurer. So I guess I’m just wondering what the deal is with this and the game show laws passed in the 50s.