{"id":480608,"date":"2026-06-03T08:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/480608\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T08:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:07:13","slug":"simon-cowell-reflects-on-the-lesson-from-susan-boyles-viral-audition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/480608\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Cowell Reflects on the Lesson from Susan Boyle\u2019s Viral Audition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Cowell<\/a> is looking back on Susan Boyle\u2019s viral \u201cBritain\u2019s Got Talent\u201d audition 15 years later.<\/p>\n

As fans may recall, Boyle, 65, sang \u201cI Dreamed a Dream\u201d for judges Cowell, Piers Morgan, and Amanda Holden during her audition, which made her an internet sensation. However, the \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent\u201d judge admitted he initially misjudged Boyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusan is a real character, and I think at 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 standup comedian,\u201d he told \u201cExtra<\/a>.\u201d \u201cAnd, yeah, there is that famous awful look between me and Pierce. And that\u2019s what we were like on the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I wanted people to show that you can\u2019t judge a book by its cover,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/p>\n

Simon Cowell attends NBC\u2019s \u2018America\u2019s Got Talent\u2019 Season 11 Kickoff in Pasadena, California, March 3, 2016. The star was named in the Panama Papers this week.<\/p>\n

The television personality shared that he \u201cabsolutely adore[s]\u201d Boyle, adding, \u201cShe did more good for our show than probably any other contestant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans took to the comment section in support of Boyle, with one fan writing, \u201cLots of great talent over all those years \u2026 but Susan Boyle is the GOAT \u2026 and it\u2019s not even close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSusan Boyle is an ICON,\u201d another fan shared.<\/p>\n

While appearing on \u201cTales from the Celebrity Trenches\u201d podcast<\/a> earlier this month, Cowell admitted his initial reaction to Boyle during the audition was \u201cawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut actually, I remember saying, I don\u2019t think we look bad enough,\u201d he explained. \u201cI think we were even worse than that, I said, \u2018We\u2019re going to just tell it as it is.\u2019 And they went, \u2018You look awful.\u2019 I said, \u2018We are awful. All of us.\u2019 I mean, that look Piers gives me. It\u2019s just I think of all the looks I\u2019ve ever remembered, that might be the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Susan<\/p>\n

Susan Boyle attends the \u2018Pride of Scotland Awards\u2019 at DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central on June 23, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Roberto Ricciuti\/WireImage)<\/p>\n

He noted that he was \u201cjust as bad,\u201d adding, \u201cWe all were. And then, you know, thank God for her, it all worked out well. And, of course, I had the ability to cut all that stuff out, but it was a bit of a wakeup call. Which is, you can\u2019t judge a book by its cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do look disgusting, but you got to hold your hands up at that moment,\u201d he continued. \u201cA lot of people are going to realise in about 24 hours that we\u2019re just horrible. And so we\u2019re going to say sorry. And that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowell admitted that the moment led to the judges to reflect, explaining, \u201cI think we all looked at ourselves at that point and went, \u2018Oh, God, we\u2019re all terrible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent\u201d Season 21 premieres on June 2 on NBC and the next day on Peacock.<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/p>\n

Start your unlimited Newsweek trial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Simon Cowell is looking back on Susan Boyle\u2019s viral \u201cBritain\u2019s Got Talent\u201d audition 15 years later. As fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[36803,13200,62294,93,61,60,25071,30028,62293,282],"class_list":["post-480608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-amanda-holden","tag-americas-got-talent","tag-britains-got-talent","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-piers-morgan","tag-simon-cowell","tag-susan-boyle","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}