Viewers of this weekend’s Britain’s Got Talent were left scratching their heads when Simon Cowell mysteriously vanished mid-episode.
The music mogul, who sits on the panel alongside Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, and Bruno Tonioli, was replaced by guest judge KSI on Saturday night.
Presenting duo Ant and Dec confirmed the temporary shake-up, welcoming the YouTube sensation to the venue as he received wild applause from the crowd.
They said: ‘Unfortunately, Simon can’t be with us today, so we have a very special guest judge, KSI.’
It has since been confirmed that Simon, 65, was absent from filming at the time because of the death of One Direction star Liam Payne.
Payne died at the tender age of 31 on October 16 last year, which is when BGT auditions were being recorded.
The Strip That Down hitmaker fell from a third-storey balcony at his hotel in Argentina, leading to a worldwide outpouring of grief from adoring fans and famous friends.
Payne, who was mentored by Simon on The X Factor in 2010 before signing to his record label, left behind his young son, Bear, whom he shared with ex-girlfriend Cheryl, and his partner of two years, Kate Cassidy.
Simon has not publicly commented on the time off he took from BGT, but when Payne’s death was announced, the talent show judge wrote an emotional tribute.
‘You never really know how you feel about someone until a moment like this happens,’ he began.
‘Liam, I am truly devastated. Heartbroken. And I feel empty.
‘This is so difficult to put in words right now. I went outside today, and I thought about so many times we had together.
‘I wanted to let you know what I would always say to the thousands of people who would always ask me.
‘What is Liam like? And I would tell them you were kind, funny, sweet, thoughtful, talented, humble, focused.
‘And how much you loved music. And how much love you genuinely had for the fans.’
Simon, who first met Payne at 14 when he first auditioned for the ITV singing competition, went on to praise the singer for how he didn’t ‘give up’ and for how he ‘really cared’ about his supporters.
The businessman added that eight-year-old Bear has his late father’s ‘smile and that twinkle in his eyes’, assuring he would be ‘so proud of everything [Payne] achieved’.
‘And now, Liam, I can see the effect you had on so many people. Because you left us too soon,’ he added solemnly.
The judge attended Payne’s funeral once his body was flown home from South America, with other mourners including Payne’s bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, and Harry Styles.
A source later told The Sun that losing Payne had ‘hit Simon incredibly hard’, hence he took time away from his public commitments.
