America’s Got Talent: Prince Poppycock Calls Piers Morgan a ‘Big Ninny’

The top four acts took the stage for the final night of competition on America’s Got Talent Tuesday, with one delivering a performance ultimately worth $1 million — and another inspiring a bit of controversy.

The sparks flew early when Piers Morgan used his buzzer to brand the operatic performance by colorful cabaret singer Prince Poppycock with a disapproving red X — a highly unusual move at this late stage. Fellow judge Sharon Osbourne scolded Morgan on-air for the move, and after the cameras stopped rolling, it was judge Howie Mandel’s turn.

“I think he deserved your criticism,” he told Morgan in a joint interview with PEOPLE. “But the X is like our middle finger. And he didn’t deserve your finger.”

Morgan, though, was standing by his decision: “I only use the X when I think that contestant has reached the end of the road. Poppycock lost his sense of fun and became a bit self-indulgent. And since there’s no next round in the competition, the only way to say ‘You’ve blown it, you can’t win,’ was the X.”

Poppycock himself wasn’t sweating Morgan’s critique. “I’m feeling fantastic,” he said. “Piers is a big ninny. If anything, he’s just looking to be divisive and create tension. It was just unfortunate. The act did not go perfectly because I had some technical difficulties but all in all, I have no regrets and no excuses.” -via-