Simon Cowell has thanked his Britain's Got Talent crew for "saving his life" during an audition. The 65-year-old said he loves it when acts shock him and the judges, as well as the venue's audience and viewers at home, although this series had a moment that almost left Simon knocking on death's door.
One audition saw Simon lying on the stage while a blindfolded man, wielding a mallet, hit a watermelon next to his head, as co-judges Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon screamed in horror. Fortunately, a crew member stepped in to stop the act, leaving Simon dazed and shaken.
Speaking about the terrifying moment, Simon told Heat Magazine: "You know the feeling when you think somebody doesn't want you on the show anymore? It was that.
"It was the closest, genuinely, where I'm thinking they want to kill me. That's how I felt because this guy got really nervous, and he'd slipped, and he was smashing these watermelons with a mallet.
"It was very gung-ho, very hard to watch. The watermelon juice was going in my face." Praising the show's safety team, he said: "The safety guys came and stopped him, thank god. They saved my life."
For series 18, Simon decided to hold all the auditions at Blackpool's Winter Gardens because the audience's energy was so good the last time the show visited the north west seaside town. He added: "We use this expression, 'You're the fifth judge' - and they took it literally. At times, it was out-of-control deafening.
"Everyone wanted the 'Golden Buzzer'. That's why we got a bit out of control with the amount of 'Golden Buzzers' we did over the season."
