Cowell confesses being tough on kid contestants in talent show

London, June 17: Britain’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell has confessed he was too tough on child contestants in this year’s show.The talent show chief said he “went too far” with his remarks that left some young competitors weeping for some time and sparked a string of complaints to Ofcom.

But the 49-year-old said he did give singing sensation Susan Boyle the option of walking out from the show, following her struggle to cope up with the growing pressure to perform in the finals. “You can’t predict how things are going to escalate and how well that person can cope [with fame],” The Daily Express quoted Cowell as telling GMTV. “By the time we did the semi-finals, it went ballistic. Everyone’s writing about her [Boyle], she’s in the spotlight and she found it difficult to cope with. “And at that point I sat down with her and said, ‘Look, if this is getting too much for you, you don’t have to go into the final, no one’s going to force you – you do whatever you want, whatever suits you.’ And she looked me in the eye and said, ‘No, I want to win this competition, I want to give it a go’,” he added. Susan turned into an overnight celebrity after her audition song gathered more than 100 million hits on popular video sharing website You Tube. The 48-year-old, who was the red-hot favourite to win the competition, spent 4 days in a rehab after suffering exhaustion and defeat in the finals. Cowell, who has inked a deal worth 5 million pounds with Susan to record her debut album, insisted he even offered to tear her contract if that would make things easier for her. He explained: “I said to her family, ‘I’ll rip the contract up, you can have the contract back. No one’s going to force her into a recording studio – I’ll do whatever you want, whatever Susan wants’. And we’ve done what she wants us to do.” ANI