Ashley Banjo shares Britain's Got Talent judging panel snap as he stands in for Simon Cowell

The Diversity frontman wished ‘boss man’ Simon Cowell well after the music mogul broke his back
@ashleybanjogram
Kimberley Bond24 August 2020

Ashley Banjo has stepped into Simon Cowell’s shoes for the Britain’s Got Talent line finals.

The 31-year-old, who took the top prize in the 2009 edition of the talent series, wished Cowell, 60, well as he recovers following a bike accident in which the reality TV judge broke his back.

Sharing an adorable snap with his 851,000 Instagram followers, Banjo posed with his five-month-old son Micah with his hand hovering precariously over the red buzzer as he takes the hot seat.

He captioned the snap: “Funny what can change in a year - Let alone in a lifetime…

Simon Cowell was forced to bow out of BGT due to his back injury
Getty Images

“Simon Cowell get well soon boss man, I’ve got you until then. From contestant to judge… The journey continues.”

Banjo, who has also served as a judge on Sky 1’s Got to Dance and ITV’s Dancing on Ice is only temporarily filling in for Cowell, who had emergency spinal surgery in California earlier this month.

However, sources have revealed Cowell is keen to return to television as soon as possible.

Diversity have come a long way since winning BGT in 2009
Getty Images for Nickelodeon Sli

“Nothing is definitive as yet but we very much hope Simon will be well enough to attend both the America’s Got Talent final on September 23 and the BGT live final in the UK in October,” an insider told the Mirror.

“The semi finals of Britain's Got Talent clash with AGT filming so he was never going to be able to return to the UK for those shows in the coming weeks, but we are still looking at whether he can appear remotely.

Simon will be hoping to return to BGT at some point
ITV Pictures

“The accident has thrown the planning up in the air for the time being, but provided Simon listens to the doctors and gets some rest in the next few weeks, we hope to see him back on screen soon.

“He has been working on his iPad in hospital but he knows he has to take it easy for a while, he has had quite the scare.”

However, Cowell has remained in good spirits following the accident.

Joking about his injury, Cowell wrote on Twitter: “Some good advice... If you buy an electric trail bike, read the manual before you ride it for the first time.

“I have broken part of my back. Thank you to everyone for your kind messages.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in