As the America’s Got Talent Quarterfinals came to an end Wednesday, purple team moderator Kathi & Karly threw a moderator’s challenge flag.

Kathi & Karly Jameson challenged Bill Delagatto’s pick of America’s Got Talent 11 pick Laura Bretan, who had won the sixth season of Romania’s Got Talent (aka Romnanii au Talent) just five days after Laura’s AGT11 audition aired.

The Moderator’s Challenge is a brand new review system (similar to the NFL’s Coach’s Challenge) is adopted similar to the instant replay.
In each regular and make-up competition, each moderator on the pink and purple team has two challenges that will start a review. Each challenge will require the use of a moderator or villain’s flex pick. If the challenge is successful, the flex pick is restored, otherwise the flex pick is used.

All VFTG pick reviews are be conducted by the webmaster, Ava Zinn,  on a stage-level monitor. A decision will be reversed only when there is indisputable visual and audible evidence to overturn the call.

Ava Zinn is notified of a Moderator’s Challenge when a moderator on the pink or purple team throws a red flag to use to get the attention of to challenge a VFTG Pick.

The Moderator’s Challenge will only cover the following situations:

• Current VFTG or Zinn’s Villains picks that previously won a competition (Mannepat Molloy Rule, after Maneepat’s appearance on Rising Star after winning the first season of Thailand’s Got Talent in 2011. Thia Tola was the winning moderator when she was a moderator of the Thailand version of VFTG and imported Maneepat’s TGT victory to the United States in 2015.)
• Decision in regard to an “Alex & Sierra” pick
• Reinstatement of a previously eliminated contestant

The webmaster, Ava Zinn, along with the NoSirGifts executives and legal team, has 48 hours to watch the instant replay of the play and decide if the original call was correct. The producers, legal team, and Zinn must see “incontrovertible visual evidence” for a call to be overturned. If the challenge fails, the original ruling stands and the challenging moderator or villain is penalized by losing a flex pick. If the challenge overrules the previous call, the call is reversed; should there have been an official change of outcome, the outcome will be changed again, resulting in the original outcome and with no loss of a flex pick.

In this case of Laura Bretan, she previously auditioned for the sixth season of Romain’s Got Talent PRIOR to her America’s Got Talent 11 Audition. Bretan is from Chicago (the home market of Kathi Jameson and an adjacent market of Milwaukee). Because the female moderators of the pink and purple team are generally not allowed to participate in America’s Got Talent, and therefore no VFTG picks. There are only four occasions since Vote for the Girls began in 2010 and in other Vote for the Girls countries, a female moderator on the pink and purple teams have chosen a female contestant on AGT as her VFTG pick. This happened on America’s Got Talent 9 with Emily West and Kelli Glover and AGT1 winner Bianca Ryan. Last year, after the elimination of Samantha Johnson, leaving an all male America’s Got Talent 10 finale, the men (Zinn’s Villains) on the red and blue teams at the time (Leonard Lai, Clark Jones, Archibald Coolranch, and a guest moderator on the blue team filling in for Vote Against The Producers) had automatically got the Villain Victory.

Ava Zinn reviewed the performances of Samantha Johnson on AGT10 and Laura Bretan on AGT11 during the 2016 Summer Olympics, she has made her final decision since she has more moderator victories than any other moderator.

First, Ava Zinn has declared Samantha Johnson the female winner of America’s Got Talent 10 (via the Moderators Save) with Archibald Coolranch already the winning villain with his final villain pick, Paul Zerdin, announced the overall winner of AGT10, as well the fourth through tenth seasons of AGT.

Now, to the Laura Bretan decision…
“After Ava’s review of the Moderator’s challenge requested by Kathi and Karly Jameson, it is declared that in the event should a US-based VFTG pick is a current contestant of one competition in the United States is previously announced the winner of a competition show or a similar contest outside the United States, and that particular VFTG pick is flexed to male villain on the red or blue team, the villain must be disqualified and loses all his Villains picks and therefore flexed out to another moderator and/or villain.”

Furthermore, becasue Laura Bretan won Romanii au Talent on the week of her America’s Got Talent audition, Laura’s victory in Romaina must be imported to the United States. What this means is that Ava Zinn has to rule against Bill Delagatto and must be disqualified for violating the rules of Vote for the Girls.

A simple, but fatal error made in haste by Bill Delagatto resulted in his disqualification. Delagatto accidentally picked a former VFTG pick — the “very first time in VFTG history someone has presented us a villain pick that they didn’t choose” in the eight-season history of the show, said host and webmaster Ava Zinn.

I am so sorry to inform you that for the very first time in VFTG history someone has presented us a villain pick that they did not choose.

“This is devastating, but I feel like Ava made a fair decision. You break the rules, you pay the price. I broke the rules,” Delagatto said after he was stunned by the news from Zinn. He apologized and accepted his fate.

Zinn told Delagatto she believed the mistake was unintentional: “You panicked. I think you let something get the best of you, and flex picked a previous VFTG pick… Now I don’t think it was meant purposely, I just think it was a complete mistake. I am so sorry, but your season is going to end today.”

Delagatto apologized to the Zinn and co-host Holly Everman , and then to VFTG moderator Kathi & Karly Jameson for taking her VFTG pick. Fellow moderators  applauded his honesty.