SIMON Cowell went ‘missing’ from a portion of tonight’s Britain’s Got Talent.
The head judge and media mogul was nowhere to be seen for some of the Blackpool auditions that were featured as part of tonight’s programme.
Despite appearing for the first half of the show, he was soon replaced by guest judge, YouTuber and boxer, KSI.
It forced show hosts Ant and Dec to address the crowd at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens where they were forced to make an announcement about Simon and confirm that he would not be returning to the panel that day.
The TV double act said: “We have a spare chair. Unfortunately Simon can”t be with us today.
“So we have a very special guest judge KSI.”
The show then continued as normal but fans at home were quick to realise the heartbreaking reason as to why Simon was absent from the show.
Back in October, filming for the programme was suspended following the tragic news of the death of the singer, Liam Payne.
Liam rose to fame on another of Simon’s programmes, The X Factor.
He passed away aged just 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
When auditions for BGT recommenced, Simon missed an extra day after being deeply affected by Liam’s passing.
Picking up on this tragic reason as the episode aired tonight, one fan said online: “Ahhh Simon was off when Liam Payne died.”
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Fuming Britain’s Got Talent fans accuse singer of ‘miming’ after wowing judges with incredible rendition of Freddie Mercury hit” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6370394964112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]As someone else echoed: “I think this was the episode where Simon was off due to Liam Payne’s death.”
At the time, a BGT spokesperson confirmed that auditions would be on hold amid the terrible circumstances.
They said last year: “Due to the tragic passing of Liam Payne, we have decided to postpone the Britain’s Got Talent auditions. Our thoughts are with Liam’s friends, family and all who loved him.”
Guest judge KSI has been used regularly this series with the star filling in for Bruno Tonioli during a series of audition sets when the Italian dancer was absent due to filming commitments in the US.
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