On The Scene: Wild Cards Return to 'America's Got Talent'

If you were bummed out that dancers Anna and Patryk, rapper CJ Dipper, comic Doogie Horner and others didn't advance to the next round on 'America's Got Talent' then last night's episode was for you! A total of 12 former acts returned to the program and attempted to re-win America's votes.

Each of the show's three judges were allowed to bring back four acts, which likely meant that at least four routines weren't as likely to get a strike from Piers Morgan, who, let's face it, admits that he's wrong as often as Fonzie does.

"He was buzzing every act that wasn't his," Sharon Osbourne said after taping of Morgan's trigger finger. "That's very disrespectful to the artist. Unless I really think they should be buzzed, I won't do it."

Did Howie Mandel give Harmonica Pierre a strike because he was Morgan's candidate?

"I didn't buzz Pierre," clarifies Mandel, who tapped his 'X' button more to send a message to his fellow judge. (The plan was for Osbourne to hit hers, too.) "That was for Piers -- not Pierre. They took it off. As a joke, I thought Sharon would follow me. Then, she threw me under the bus -- on live TV! I hope it didn't throw Pierre."

Osbourne and Mandel were on the same page when it came to Doogie Horner (Morgan's choice.) The comic drew upon past contestants for most of his stand up routine. It was a hit with the judges and likely struck chords with regular 'AGT' viewers at home, too.

"Doogie was good," Osbourne says. "His writing was really on tonight."

"What Doogie did and how it pertained to the audience who watches this show [may have been] a risk [but] it was the thing to do," Mandel says. "He couldn't be forgettable. A lot of comedians who've been on the show have been. But Doogie is not."

Did host Nick Cannon think that aerial rope dancers Michael and Ashleigh had met with disaster when she fell from above? (It was actually part of their routine.) "Those type of acts I tend to look away from," Cannon says. "I didn't watch it just for that reason. I don't always seem them in rehearsal. A lot of times I'm running it around doing different things."

Among those things are his duties at TeenNick, where Cannon just re-upped as chairman. What does that position entail? "A lot," he says. "Development, marketing, planning your fiscal year." The most challenging part is "coming up with new innovative ways to present affordable content."

While the judges got to each pick an act from the past to return for the wild card slots, Mandel says he wouldn't trade Osbourne or even Morgan for any past 'AGT' judge.

"We're a good group of people," Mandel says. "Even if Piers and I don't agree...that's what makes it good. You don't want to see eye-to-eye. I can't imagine sitting there with anyone else."