Ant McPartlin has admitted the full impact of Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent audition only struck him when he watched the moment back.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Ant & Dec’s Hanging Out podcast, the presenter reflected on an audition that became a lesson in looking beyond first impressions.
Simon Cowell has also expressed regret over his initial judgement of Susan Boyle.
Susan Boyle’s audition sparks global reaction
Dec Donnelly said Susan’s performance showed why people should “never judge a book by its cover”.
Ant, meanwhile, confessed that he did not immediately recognise how significant the audition would become.
He said: “I don’t really remember it being remarkable, not as remarkable as when I watched it back and you saw the judges reactions and audiences reaction. It was a good audition, but we’d seen a lot of good auditions that day…”
The scale of the response soon became impossible to miss. According to Dec, footage of the audition attracted around 20 million YouTube views within days of its UK broadcast.
Ant described the attention surrounding Susan’s performance as “crazy” and recalled being recognised in a shopping centre food court during a Christmas trip to Dubai.
“I was in the food court in a mall in Dubai and I just kept getting recognised and it really surprised us,” he admitted.
A young fan shouted: “It’s you, it’s you, Susan Boyle boy.”
Ant then joked: “Who wants the nickname to be Susan Boyle boy? Not me!”
Dec recalls Susan backstage before BGT performance
Dec also remembered meeting Susan before she stepped out in front of the judges.
He said nobody expected the woman sitting backstage with sandwiches in a Tupperware box to deliver a performance that would “bring the house down” and receive such an enormous reaction.
The audition remains one of Britain’s Got Talent’s best-known moments. Although Ant did not spot its significance straight away, he admitted that watching it back can still leave him feeling “teary”.
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