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‘America’s Got Talent’: Flame-Throwing Arrow Stunt Goes Horribly Awry On Live Television [Video]

By Jonathan Brown
Published on: 16:36 PST, Aug 2, 2016

Warning: The attached video is incredibly graphic and may bother some Inquisitr readers. Please proceed at your own risk.

A dangerous stunt performed during Tuesday night’s live broadcast of America’s Got Talent nearly proved fatal for one of the show’s remaining contestants.

As reported by TMZ, stuntman Ryan Stock, who, along with his fiancee, Amber Lynn Walker, performs carnival-like sideshow acts, was set to be a live target of a flaming arrow shot by Walker. After swallowing a metal rod with a bull’s-eye target attached, he leaned down to the floor and prepared for Amber to shoot her crossbow. Unfortunately, Amber accidently missed the target by several inches and inadvertently hit Ryan in the throat, causing the lapel of his shirt to go up in flames for several seconds.

He then quickly put the fire out with help from an on-set producer, before removing the rod from his throat and standing upright again. The entire studio audience, as well at the America’s Got Talent judges, Spice Girls member Melanie Brown, comedian Howie Mandel, model Heidi Klum, and former American Idol star Simon Cowell, were all stunned to complete silence, most of them, covering their mouths with their hands.

“I’m okay,” Stock repeated incessantly, despite the fact that he was visibly seen gasping for air and bleeding from his neck.

After a few seconds, announcer Nick Cannon stepped onto to the stage to assure everyone that all was mostly well.

“It’s just caught my shirt,” Ryan insisted. Mandel, however, wasn’t so sure.

“Listen,” he stammered, “I don’t think you are [okay]. I think what you do is wonderfully horrific, but that’s the first time you missed, and you are [obviously] in pain.”

Stock continued to state that he was alright, but Howie flat-out refused to believe him.

“We have to be responsible here, you are hurt,” he said. “I think what you did is wonderful and I think you deserve votes, but the audience just saw what could happen [and] I hate that I saw what could happen.”

Regardless of their fear, judges Klum, Brown and Mandel still attempted to critique the act. Cowell, however, chose not to.

“Why are we even judging this,” he questioned, before sending Stock and Walker off the stage to be tended to.

After they departed, both America’s Got Talent and Stock updated fans of the show through their respective Twitter profiles. According to the New York Daily News, the AGT account initially released an insensitive message that asked viewers to remember to vote Stout and Walker through to the next round after they “calmed down and stopped freaking out.” It has since been deleted.

“We had a very serious mishap,” Stock added, “[one] that was an unfortunate mechanic failure, but I am very fortunate to walk away from it.”

Behind the scenes, Mandel was said to have asked Stock to be checked out properly by medical officials, but it is unknown whether or not the performer heeded his request. Cannon reappeared later on-air to once again state that Stock was fine, and that he was not seriously injured by the arrow or the flame.

Immediately after the shocking moment, many America’s Got Talent viewers took to Twitter to speak about what they had just witnessed on live television.

Now in its eleventh season. America’s Got Talent is known for adding additional elements of shock and awe to boost viewership for their live shows. The NBC series, which was just renewed for a 2017 increment on Tuesday, so says TV By The Numbers, is currently the No. 1 series of the summer, and airs on both Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8 p.m/7 c. No word on how tonight’s stunt may affect the show in the future, or the remainder of Stock and Walker’s run in the competition.

[Photo by Fernando Leon/Stringer/Getty Images]

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