Ant and Dec were on the brink of ditching Britain’s Got Talent after a backstage bust-up with none other than Simon Cowell.
The talent show juggernaut, kicked off its 17th series in April, bringing a fresh batch of hopefuls all vying for a hefty £250k prize and the chance to perform at the Royal Variety Performance. Music mogul Simon Cowell reckons the winner’s already been clocked by the audience, bigging up songstress Sydnie Christmas by saying: “We’ll see what happens.”
But when the spotlight fades and the audience heads home, the drama’s far from over. TV legends Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, who’ve been the face of BGT since it first hit our screens in 2007, reportedly nearly chucked in the towel.
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The lads from Newcastle had enough of Cowell’s chronic tardiness. Cowell, who’s spilled the beans in Dec’s tell-all book Once Upon A Tyne, owned up: “They used to have a real issue with me being late and it used to drive them nuts.”
(Image: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
The Sun also reported the dynamic duo were baffled by Simon’s timekeeping and their best bits getting snipped from the grand finale. Ant said: “The audition days had been very long, which in itself we don’t mind, but after filming interviews and interacting with every single act, as well as making jokes, giving reactions and everything else we always do, we found that when the show went out on TV, we hardly seemed to feature in it at all.
(Image: ITV)
“We began to feel that we were wasting our time doing the auditions because all the footage of the work we were doing was ending up on the cutting-room floor.” The star expressed feeling “sidelined” on the show and had a meeting with ITV bosses, stating they were “strongly considering” quitting the show.
Following their complaint, Cowell invited the pair to Los Angeles, where they dined at an upscale restaurant in West Hollywood. “It’s worth mentioning that Simon was only one minute late for that meeting, which for him is the equivalent of being three days early,” Dec quipped.
(Image: ITV)
“The three of us sat down and me and Ant went either side of him, so we could do the full pincer movement… We told him everything – that we weren’t being used, that we could be doing other stuff, that maybe someone else should take over.”
Fortunately, Cowell was ‘desperate’ for Ant and Dec to stay and vowed to make changes. “To be fair to him, he was as good as his word, things did change,” Dec concluded.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
