Mel B Reveals Simon Cowell Had Disadvantage During AGT: Fantasy League Draft

Fans watching the auditions have noticed AGT: Fantasy League has a surprising edge to it, with Judges Mel B, Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, and Howie Mandel embracing the spirit of the competition like never before. As a result, advantages and disadvantages in the game's structure go a long way.

Instead of delivering a straightforward competition setup, the Fantasy League Judges take a more active role, serving as Mentors to their own Dream Teams, a roster of 10 Acts each that they handpicked themselves. How did they draft their teams? So far during the auditions, we’ve seen Mel B toss water on frequent sparring partner, Cowell, and Klum out-and-out tackle Mandel to the ground during a Golden Buzzer moment. We can only imagine how things went down behind the scenes when they first drafted their Dream Teams.

RELATED: Mel B Says Simon Cowell Wanted to Change This Fantasy League Rule: "He Irritates Me"

It turns out the Judges didn’t battle it out when it came to who got to pick first. Instead, they drew straws to determine who would get to choose their Dream Team first. According to Judge Mel B, the straws created a pecking order, and Cowell pulled the shortest one, putting him at a disadvantage. When NBC Insider recently caught up with the former Spice Girl, she explained how it all transpired.

“There are 40 acts from all over the world that have been chosen by the public. It’s just talent upon talent upon talent. There are so many good ones, it was tough,” she said.

“But we did have a pecking order, so whoever drew the shortest straw went last. So that was Simon,” she added.

It turns out, Klum drew the longest straw, so she picked her team first, then came Mandel and Mel B.

Here’s where the Fantasy League twist kicks in: Judges get a Golden Buzzer, which allows them to push one of their Acts forward to the next round or Take away talent for their own Dream Team. For the record, Mel B wasted no time using her Golden Buzzer in the first episode to nab one of Cowell’s acts, the incredible brother-sister roller skating duo Billy and Emily England.

“Of course I did, I stole Simon's act,” the sassy singer stated. “And that Act was so happy to get away from Simon and be part of my team. And they didn't hold back, they told him, and that made me laugh a lot." 

Despite drawing straws — a seemingly calm and straightforward method of deciding the order — there was still some bantering and bickering between the opinionated Judges during the drafting process.

“There [were] a lot of arguments. A lot of ‘no, not that one. I want that one,” the singer revealed. “But you know they’re all great. So it’s been a real interesting process.”

Given the opportunity to craft their own Dream Teams, America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League inspired colorful, messy, and often hilarious rivalries between Judges, with Simon recently getting under Mel B’s skin after teasing about wanting unlimited Golden Buzzers.

“Yeah, this is what is exciting. This is the exciting bit because it's a competition going on… between the contestants. But there's also a competition going on between us four and it can get pretty heated. None of us hold back because we want to win,” she told us.

Which act — and Judge — has what it takes to win?

Tune in every Monday at 8/7c on NBC to watch AGT: Fantasy League. If you can’t watch the show live, new episodes will be available to stream the next day on Peacock.