Simon Cowell’s replacement on America’s Got Talent has been confirmed, a few days after it was reported that the music mogul would be absent from multiple episodes of the current season.
The judge is having to step away temporarily after undergoing surgery on his back, which he broke in 2020 after he fell off the back off an electric motorcycle. He has had multiple operations over the past few years, though the latest one is said to be routine.
It was believed that Cowell’s spot would be filled by a guest judge, and it has now been confirmed that Saturday Night Live star Kenan Thompson will step in for the episode that airs on Tuesday (1 September).
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He’ll be sitting on the judges’ table alongside Mel B, Howie Mandel and Sofia Vergara, while Terry Crews is on hosting duties. The news was confirmed via the show’s social media accounts, with a post being shared on Instagram.
It’s not the first time that Thompson has stepped in to cover for Cowell on the long-running reality series, as he did the same thing for a few episodes in 2020, although Heidi Klum was a judge on that season instead of Mel B.
Cowell, who is also known for The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, spoke about his injury in an interview with OK! Magazine in 2022, where he said: “I kept a lot back. It was a lot worse than people thought. I had a lot of long-term nerve damage as well.
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“If there was one good thing about lockdown, it was that it gave me the time to heal, because I wasn’t working on a TV show.”
“I was able to walk a lot and strengthen my legs. I know I was lucky to survive my back surgery. I have a lot of people to thank for my recovery,” he added.
America’s Got Talent airs on NBC in the US. In the UK, it has previously aired on ITV2 and been available on Netflix, but nowadays the official YouTube channel has compilations of all the performances from each episode.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.