Comedy pair Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are getting quite candid in their book Once Upon A Tyne about what it's really like to work with Simon Cowell on Britain's Got Talent. At one point it became so frustrating they almost quit and had a loud confrontation with Simon!
Ant & Dec VS Simon Cowell on Britain's Got Talent
In their new book Once Upon A Tyne, Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are getting honest about how frustrating it was to work with Simon Cowell on Britain's Got Talent. Ant & Dec explained how shooting days consisted of waiting for Simon Cowell to show up! The famously critical judge was far too often late and made the cast and crew wait endlessly for him.
The Sun quotes Declan in their book saying, "A couple of hours after we arrive at the theatre, we focus on one of the key elements of any BGT audition day: waiting for Simon Cowell to turn up. Once we've got started on that, we'll often film interviews with some of the day's acts, then have a bit of food, then get back to waiting for Simon."
Simon Cowell who even contributed to the book admitted "They used to have a real issue with me being late and it used to drive them nuts." Ant responds to Simons's line with "We've still got a real issue with him being late and it still drives us nuts!"
The straw that almost ultimately broke the camels back was how little the pair were featured on the show. When watching each episode they realized most of their screen time was edited out of the show. Ant explained, "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."
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This was a crushing blow to the hilarious duo who had been with the show from the very start in 2007 and had worked with Simon since the early 2000s. "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." They also had other ventures lined up that they could have put more time and effort into if it wasn't for all the unused hours of work they put into Britain's Got Talent.
Ant & Dec Confront Simon Cowell
The two decided they were going to quit the hit series and told ITV their plans which prompted Simon to set up a meeting with the Ant & Dec in hopes of winning them back. Ant & Dec even sat on either side of Simon "so we could do the full pincer movement."
Ant said "And then we let him have it with both barrels. We told him everything - that we weren't being used, that we could be doing other stuff, that maybe someone else should take over. To be fair to Simon, he sat there, took it all and listened intently for four maybe five cigarettes."
Secretly soft-hearted Simon promised Ant & Dec "That things would change and that we'd never feel like that again." Simon apparently "desperately" wanted the two to stay on the show with him and implored them to at least stay for one more series to see if it improved for them. Dec relieved said, "And, to be fair to him, he was as good as his word, things did change." Simon added in the book "If they're pi**** off, they'll tell me to my face. And there's no drama. There's no entourage. If they've got something to say, they say it themselves, which I respect."
Luckily it all was sorted and Simon even agreed to start the day earlier so now we get to see Ant & Dec again on Britain's Got Talent!
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