Britain’s Got Talent ventriloquist Jimmy Tamley claimed the producers “threw him under the bus” following the withdrawal of Simon Cowell in his semifinal performance.
Viewers of Thursday’s live show saw the unimpressed judge leave the stage after being arrested along with David Walliams for participating in Jimmy’s act.
The ventriloquist has now claimed that the producers threw “many curved balls” at him before his performance and that he was “stunned” and “traumatized” by the events that unfolded.
Simon Cowell walked off stage after Jimmy tried to get him to make a can
Rex / Shutterstock / ITV / Syco
In a lengthy Facebook post, Jimmy claimed producers prevented him from using puppets as part of his act, insisting he was using masks on one of BGT’s six main stars.
After electing Simon, Jimmy said the producers told him hours before the live show that the music mogul had not been notified of his participation.
“The yardstick they worked on was that he ‘liked surprises,'” Jimmy wrote. “It upset me a bit, because he’s the best executive producer and surely would have asked the question, ‘Who is Jimmy going to use today?’.
– I had assumed, perhaps naively, that he had been consulted on this subject. I had to trust my immediate producers, in the sense that he would accept it.
Jimmy continued, “Looking at it now, I wonder what the producers were thinking. Was I, indeed, THROWN UNDER THE BUS? He clearly wasn’t willing to accept all of this, and in his subsequent comments he indicated that the producers would indeed be murdered.
Speaking about how he felt after Simon left, Jimmy continued, “Immediately after my performance, I was completely stunned and traumatized by what had just happened to me on LIVE TV.
“I was furious with the producers and told them unequivocally that I wanted to leave and that I would not continue for the results, despite people voting for me.”
He added that a psychologist had checked that he was okay before finally agreeing to return on stage for the result.
“I could never have, in my wildest dreams over the past few weeks, have foreseen what happened to me,†Jimmy said.
While saying that many of the people he worked with on the show were “very helpful and creative”, he added: before and will continue in this way, if they treat artists, who are not used to the television and media, that way.
A spokesperson for Britain’s Got Talent made no comment when contacted by HuffPost UK.
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12 semi-finalists of “Britain’s Got Talent” who should have gone further
