Simon Cowell has defended his that 'awful' treatment of contestants on early Britain's Got Talent shows as he remembers Susan Boyle's appearance on the talent competition in 200911:43, 04 Jun 2026Simon Cowell has now defended his “awful” treatment of Susan Boyle in her Britain's Got Talent audition insisting he believed she was a comic.‌The music mogul admitted he was “horrible” when SuBo strolled onto the stage in 2009. The clip was viewed by hundreds of millions of people online and turned Boyle into a global superstar.‌Cowell, now a father of one, says that despite his bad look, his reaction to Boyle actually showed the world “you cannot judge a book by its cover."‌"Susan is a real character and I think out of the corner of my eye I must have seen her messing around in the wings or something because I thought she was a comedian, a stand-up comedian," he said."And yeah there is that famous awful look between me and Piers. That's what we were like on the day. And I wanted people to show that you can't judge a book by its cover.‌“I absolutely adore her. She did more good for our show than probably any other contestant.” Cowell spoke on Fox to promote the new season of AGT. Cowell promises fans that there will be “a lot of craziness this season."For the first time since the show's start Stateside, he invited the contestants into his Malibu home, teasing. “It was really, really good to be able to sit down with each contestant for about 20, or 30 minutes and actually really, really get to know them.“I really made the point ‘you’re here as my guest. eat, drink, whatever you want’; to the point apparently one of the one of the contestants found a bedroom and took a shower.”‌More than 25 years ago, Boyle, 65, appeared in front of the crowd and panellists Amanda Holden, Piers Morgan and head judge Simon, who famously couldn't conceal their reactions before her performance left them stunned.While speaking to the Tales From The Celebrity Trenches podcast, Cowell acknowledged the response from the three judges was "awful and horrible."Article continues belowHe added: "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.”Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .