Simon Cowell reportedly had a joke poking fun at his real age “cut” from the broadcast of Britain’s Got Talent over the weekend.
The 62-year-old music mogul reportedly culled a gag made by fellow Britain’s Got Talent judge David Walliams, 50, from the final edit of Saturday’s show.
The age-related jibe was made during the audition rounds in January, in which the Sun reported David said: “Are you a fan of Simon Cowell? Does he look like your grandad?”
A TV source told the paper: “David’s comment got a laugh from the audience at the time and Simon didn’t appear to take offence.
“It’s odd the joke was taken out of the final cut as David has made far cheekier gags about Simon and they’ve stayed in.”
Simon has previously taken his fellow judge’s jokes in his stride, with David recently playfully joking that Simon Cowell lost 20lbs with the help of a gastric band.
The comedian was reminiscing on a Simon-lookalike auditionee and prompted Simon to come back with a playful job labelling David a “desperate” children's author for “telling his followers” to vote for him when nominated for awards.
Speaking about the lookalike magician, Simon admitted: “I wasn't thrilled. He was what I would call probably a semi professional and we liked it because we have a lot of little magic acts, like playing cards.
“His was very big and I popped out of nowhere but our audience loves magic acts. That wasn't my favourite part of the show, though.”
The Little Britain star soon chimed in: “You need to behave. He could only be your double if he had some plastic surgery,” before Simon let slip: “I was thinking that.”
A cheeky David added: “Also a gastric band,” before his co-star insisted: “I haven't got a gastric band!”
The ITV talent show returned to screens after a two year break earlier this month, after ITV bosses were forced to cancel last year's series as the Covid pandemic and numerous lockdowns made it nearly impossible to audition acts.
In 2020, the semi-finals and final were delayed until the autumn and pre-recorded, with Simon Cowell replaced by Ashley Banjo after the media mogul suffered a nasty accident in the US.
This year, Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are back at the helm as they search for brand new talent to bring some needed smiles to the nation's faces.
Britain's Got Talent returns on Saturday evenings on ITV.