Howie Mandel wasn’t on America’s Got Talent for the first time in 2019.

America’s Got Talent fans were in for a shock when Howie Mandel announced that he would not be returning to the show for season 16. In fact, Howie Mandel is only returning to judge one more season of AGT, before departing the show for good. Howie has been a staple of AGT since it began in 2006, so many fans were surprised to see him leave now.

The official reason given by NBC was that Howie wanted to focus on his other projects. This included his podcast, which he started back in 2017 and was also slated to appear on a new game show called “Take It All” with Drew Carey.

Howie Mandel’s exit came as something of a surprise to fans who expected him to return after season 15 ended. It was at this point that NBC revealed that they had signed Nick Cannon as a judge for seasons 16 and 17. This news came after Cannon had been fired from America’s Got Talent back in 2014 following controversial comments about the network made during an interview with Howard Stern.