{"id":488797,"date":"2026-03-22T05:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T05:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/488797\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T05:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T05:35:13","slug":"why-was-simon-cowell-replaced-by-stacey-solomon-at-britains-got-talent-auditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/488797\/","title":{"rendered":"Why was Simon Cowell replaced by Stacey Solomon at Britain’s Got Talent auditions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stacey was seen sitting next to Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and KSI on the ITV programme<\/p>\n

(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n

Simon Cowell was replaced by Stacey Solomon in the latest round of Britain’s Got Talent auditions to air on ITV<\/a>, but was the programme\u2019s head judge missing?<\/p>\n

On Saturday night\u2019s episode of the series\u2019 19th season<\/a>, Stacey was seen judging alongside Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and KSI. Stacey is no stranger to ITV talent shows, having risen to fame on The X Factor in 2009.<\/p>\n

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Speaking backstage at the auditions held in Birmingham, Stacey said: \u201cI feel like one minute Simon Cowell was deciding the fate of my career and now I\u2019m standing in for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having only replaced former Strictly<\/a> Come Dancing star Bruno Tonioli on the judging panel, YouTuber KSI told Stacey to \u2018\u2018believe in yourself\u2019. Never one to miss a comedic beat, Stacey joked that it sounded like \u2018she was going to audition\u2019.<\/p>\n

Informing the crowd of the change, Ant and Dec<\/a> said: \u201cSimon Cowell can\u2019t be here, but we have lined up a very special judge for you, Stacey Solomon!\u201d Amanda added: \u201cThis is a family show, Stacey is now part of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon missed two days of Britain’s Got Talent auditions back in October last year after he \u2018fell down some steps\u2019 and bumped his head. After postponing one day of the Birmingham auditions, Sort Your Life Out presenter Stacey was drafted in.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stacey Solomon on Britain’s Got Talent(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n

The music mogul <\/a>was back for the Blackpool auditions, held in the iconic Winter Gardens, where Amanda reportedly told him: “I thought they might be here in case anything went wrong with you again because you were poorly last week.”<\/p>\n

Simon replied: “I fell down some steps, that wasn\u2019t poorly, and I bumped my head but I\u2019m fine now. I wish you had been around a couple of weeks ago when I actually bashed my head. Seriously – no one sang for me then!”<\/p>\n

Due to her appearing on every season of Britain\u2019s Got Talent since its launch in 2007, Amanda took on the role of head judge. This meant that she had to sit in Simon\u2019s seat, which is located on the far left of the judging table.<\/p>\n

Previously discussing the change<\/a>, Amanda told reporters: \u201cI must admit I hated sitting in that seat. I\u2019ve been on the show the longest, so I understand why I probably need to sit in that seat, but when I was there, I felt very outcast on the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK if your team are sitting to the left of you \u2013 Simon\u2019s got dozens of staff and family watching from the side and communicating with him. Mine all decided to eat my snacks and sit in the dressing room paying no attention to the show or me whatsoever!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimon said to me, \u2018You must have loved it. Did you feel powerful?\u2019 I said I hated it because I had to keep leaning in to be part of the conversation. I never want to sit in that seat again! I\u2019m juicy in the middle, it\u2019s such a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cShe [Stacey} is so lovely and I think we\u2019ve got quite a similar style of judging. She\u2019s warm, she\u2019s super funny, she has a great understanding of what it\u2019s like to be on the other side, because she obviously auditioned for The X Factor all those years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though she\u2019s smashing it in the real world now, Stacey\u2019s very down to earth and doesn\u2019t have an ego, so I think that worked really nicely for the day that she was pulled in. We\u2019re all fans of her and her crafting is through the roof. If only I could be that type of mother!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stacey was seen sitting next to Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and KSI on the ITV programme (Image: ITV)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3573,96,347,3650,2082,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-488797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-britains-got-talent","tag-entertainment","tag-itv","tag-simon-cowell","tag-stacey-solomon","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}