America’s Got Talent’: Heidi Klum’s Illness Sparks New Rules

America’s Got Talent featured a bevy of talented performers on Tuesday night’s episode of the show, with one of those acts, Waffle Crew, even securing the golden buzzer from judge Simon Cowell. But in the latter part of the episode and during another day of auditions, host Terry Crews revealed that Heidi Klum was unable to attend the taping due to an illness. As a result of Klum’s absence, he explained that the show would implement a new set of rules for the rest of the judging panel, which includes Cowell, Sofia Vergara, and Howie Mandel.

Since Klum was not able to be a part of the judges’ panel for the latter half of the episode, Crews announced that there would be two major changes to the show for the time being. He revealed that it would now only take two “yes” votes for an act to make it through to the next round (previously, it took three). Additionally, he said that if an act gets three X’s from the judges, then they will have to stop their performance. As AGT fans might recall, in early March, it was reported that Klum missed several tapings of the NBC competition due to an illness.

At the time, given that it came in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Klum was concerned about whether or not she had contracted the illness. On Instagram, the supermodel told her fans that she was self-quarantining separately from her husband, Tom Kaulitz, as she awaited her coronavirus test results. Klum shared that Kaulitz had recently traveled while on tour, which is another reason why they were not quarantining separately. She later revealed that her husband tested negative for the coronavirus. In a separate Instagram post, Klum revealed that she had also tested negative for the illness.

“These are strange times… but in these moments, you remember what’s really important – the people you love and keeping them safe,” Klum wrote on Instagram back in March during her period of self-isolation. She continued to explain exactly how others can keep themselves safe amidst the health crisis. “Social distancing is what we all need to do right now to be responsible citizens of the world. We are all in this together and it is up to us to protect our loved ones, and our neighbors and our communities. Please listen to the officials and stay at home if you can and physically distance yourself from other people… especially if you are not feeling well. I see all the beautiful things people are doing for each other all over the globe and that gives me hope! Sending all of you love and positivity and healing vibes… together we can get through this but we need to be proactive so that we can all have a bright and healthy future.”