A former “America’s Got Talent” contestant has reached a tentative settlement with show producers he sued after contending that he was crushed and burned by two exploding motor vehicles in 2021 and subsequently hospitalized while rehearsing for the then-new series “America’s Got Talent: Extreme” at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.
Attorneys for Jonathan Harvey filed court papers on Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa R. Jaskol notifying her of a “conditional” accord in the case against Fremantle North America Productions Inc., NBCUniversal, NBC West and others.
The plaintiff’s attorneys said they expect to filed a request for dismissal by Jan. 9. No terms were divulged.
“To keep audiences interested and ratings high, and the money rolling in, AGT must create successively more thrilling content,” the lawsuit stated. `Pitched as the ultimate AGT title, the network and producers developed a madcap AGT spin-off, “America’s Got Talent: Extreme.”
Under an illusion of safety on Oct. 14, 2021, Harvey was pushed to perform extreme stunts for the show and was catastrophically injured during rehearsals when he was crushed and burned by two exploding cars, then further injured when he fell 20 to 40 feet to the ground, according to the suit.
Among other injuries, Harvey sustained a dislocated spinal cord, rendering him a paraplegic; internal organ injuries, including the loss of his left kidney; fractures to his legs, ribs, and shoulders; and extensive third-degree burns, the suit filed in October 2023 stated.
According to the Fremantle attorneys’ court papers, Harvey’s act involved being suspended by a crane hanging upside down in a straight jacket. “Ala Houdini,” he would then escape from a straight jacket and release himself from a suspension cable to drop to an airbag directly beneath him before two cars positioned on either side of him were released and pendulum toward him, the Fremantle lawyers further stated in their pleadings.
“Oddly, when plaintiff released himself from the suspension cable and the cars began to move toward him, he did not immediately fall away and was impacted by the moving cars,” the Fremantle attorneys stated in their court papers. “The cars propelled away from the airbag positioned beneath him and he fell to the ground head-first.”