Simon Cowell has enjoyed a lot of cute animal acts on America’s Got Talent over his five years as a judge on the NBC series. But a bunny act? Apparently, that’s where Simon draws the line.
On Tuesday night, AGT viewers were first introduced to the internet famous rabbit Bino the bunny and his owner, Shai Lighter. As Shai explained to Simon and fellow judges Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, and Sofía Vergara, Bino had been working five years on perfecting his performance.
The only problem was, it appeared Bino experienced a case of stage fright during the audition. Despite being able to turn around, strum a guitar and show off his bowling skills, Bino had a tough time dunking a mini basketball and “playing” the piano. Overall, Bino’s mistakes started to visibly annoy Simon, who watched on from the judges’ table rolling his eyes and eventually gave the rabbit his red “x.” Thankfully, Heidi, Howie, and Sofía let Bino finish his routine. For the grand finale, Bino was able to go back to the basketball stunt and complete a slam dunk.
In the end, Simon was overwhelmed and Bino was voted through to the next round. After watching the rabbit’s performance, many folks online started voicing their opinions. Some sided with Simon, expressing their disbelief that Howie, Heidi, and Sofía voted to advance Bino and also pointing out that the bunny could’ve taken a spot away from other AGT hopefuls perhaps more deserving. “I can’t believe you put the rabbit through. I agree with Simon,” one fan wrote. “I’m just starting to watch #AGT #AmericasGotTalent now. The bunny act needed to be cut…” another said. “What? The other judges said yes to the bunny? He hardly did anything,” someone else chimed in.
Then again, others seemed to be totally about Bino and were happy to see the rabbit advance to the judges’ cuts. “I’m so proud of Bino […] a lot of rabbits cannot do what Bino does. Even though Bino did not play the piano he is still a very intelligent rabbit,” one fan commented on YouTube. “He was amazing 🌟.. I ❤️ Bino,” another said.
As some folks may know, Bino is actually quite a big name on the internet. The talented rabbit has over 236k subscribers on YouTube and is a Guinness World Records holder for the most slam dunks by a rabbit in one minute. Safe to say, Bino is a pretty big deal, and Simon may not get to be fully aware of his talents.
Reacting to all the love being thrown Bino’s way, Shai (via Bino’s YouTube account) commented back to fans, “Thank you for having us on your show! ❤️ You’re all welcome to my channel to watch how I perform at home 😛 Simon… I’m watching you 🐰👀.”
It sounds like Bino is going to really bring it next time around.
