Susan Boyle 'made me look an idiot', says Cowell

Simon Cowell has admitted he was "left looking like a complete idiot" when Susan Boyle made her debut on Britain's Got Talent. Speaking on Steve Wright's Radio 2 show on Friday, the mogul said that he had no idea who would be appearing at auditions on that day - and that Susan's performance took him and his fellow judges completely by surprise. "It wasn't a great day," he said, "She came on and I thought I don't think this is going to be great, I've just got a feeling here, and she started to sing. "I didn't think at the time, to be honest with you, that this was incredible," Simon admitted. "I remember thinking this is great but Piers and Amanda got it more than I did and then when I watched the clip back and saw the whole story, that is when I thought this is going to be huge and I'm going to look like a complete idiot." The Scottish singer became internationally famous after her original audition was shown on Britain's Got Talent in 2009. She went on to finish second in the show to Diversity and since then has enjoyed huge success around the world with her debut album I Dreamed A Dream.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.