Simon Cowell has admitted his and fellow Britain’s Got Talent judges Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan’s terrible attitude towards the singing legend Susan Boyle.
The media tycoon, 66, made a name for himself as a ruthless reality TV judge in the 2000s and 2010s as the face of ITV reality series Britain’s Got Talent, where talented (and not-so-talented) ordinary people tried to make a name for themselves.
There’s no denying that 2009 contestant SuBo remains one of the most famed in the show’s history after she totally shocked judges with her unexpected talent after they had already written her off.
During her viral audition, the then 47-year-old Scot introduced herself to the sceptical judging panel before delivering her gobsmacking rendition of I Dreamed A Dream.
Her raw talent immediately won Simon, Amanda, Piers and the nation over, and she eventually came runner-up as well as launching a lucrative, chart-topping career – cementing her status as a national treasure to this day.
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Almost two decades later, the TV personality has reflected on the trio’s unfair treatment of Susan before she sang her heart out, and he didn’t hesitate to bring the others down with him.
Appearing on Jamie East’s podcast, Celebrity Trenches, he said: ‘Her audition to look back on is just awful. No one in that audition bathed themselves in a nice light did they?’
In fact, Simon has revealed that the final TV edit didn’t even manage to capture the full horrors of their behaviour – although it shone a stark light on their prejudice nonetheless.
He continued: ‘I look back and I just think, “my God we look so awful, horrible.” I actually don’t think we look bad enough. I think we were even worse than that and they went, “you look awful.”
‘And I said: “We are awful!” All of us. I mean that look that Piers gives me, I think out of all the looks I’ve ever remembered, that might be the worst. I was just as bad.’
Ultimately, Simon shared why they decided to keep their poor reaction in the show.
‘Of course I had the ability to cut all of that stuff out but it was a bit of a wake up call. You can’t judge a book by its cover.
‘We do look disgusting, but you have to hold your hands up at that moment and go, “A lot of people are going to realise in about 24 hours that we are just horrible.”‘
Susan herself was not unaware of the harsh judgment she had entered the reality TV fray with. Discussing her experience in 2019, she said: ‘It felt quite suffocating, almost as though I was an act in a freak show, and that hurt.’
Piers himself has been open about his abysmal attitude going into the audition after a full day of poor auditions, and how he was happily proven wrong.
He told Entertainment Weekly in 2019: ‘Yeah, we thought she was just going to be a bit of a joke and we’d all have a good laugh and we’d all go back to bed and think: “What a terrible day that was!”.
‘When she began to interact with us, she was making silly jokes and pulling funny faces and we’re like: “Oh dear, this is really going to be the end.”‘
He added, once she started, it was ‘one of the most unexpected things I’ve ever seen in my life’.
Meanwhile, Amanda told The Irish Independent in 2016 that she had her own strange ideas of what to expect.
She said: ‘To this day I thought Susan Boyle was going to be a stand-up comic. It still shocks me when I watch it, and she opens her mouth and sings.’
Susan prevailed, however, and her presence in the fabric of British culture remains stronger than ever. In recent months, Timothee Chalamet pushed her back into the spotlight in the sweetest way after calling her one of Britain’s ‘all-time greats’ who ‘dreamt bigger than us all’.
Their blossoming friendship was sealed after the Hollywood A-lister sent her a coveted Marty Supreme jacket.
Metro has reached out to Amanda Holden’s and Piers Morgan’s representatives for comment.
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