Simon Cowell played a funny prank on Ant and Dec during the final round of auditions in Sunday night’s episode.
The ITV talent show’s head judge, 64, was the victim of a prank by the Geordie duo during the latest series of Saturday Night Takeaway earlier this year and decided to get revenge.
The music mogul had enlisted the help of actor Dave Bibby, 38, who had posed as a baker and whose “lifelong” dream was to break the world record for being pelted with custard pies.
Dave told Ant and Dec that his dad had previously held the record, but someone else had beaten it and wanted to retire it and asked the presenters to do the honours.
In fact, the boys managed to break the record for most pies thrown in the face in one minute, throwing 44, but it later became clear that it was all a ruse.
Simon Cowell played a funny prank on Ant and Dec during the final round of auditions in Sunday night’s episode.
The ITV talent show’s head judge, 64, was the victim of a prank by the Geordie duo during the latest series of Saturday Night Takeaway earlier this year and decided to get revenge.
Simon jumped to his feet with fellow judges Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli, but the ‘official adjudicator’ noted that the attempt was a no-go because Ant had crossed the shooting line.
It was at that moment that the word ‘GOTCHA YOU!’ was projected on the screen above them and the penny dropped.
Amanda seemed shocked as she realized what had happened and soon leaned over to former MisTeeq singer Alesha to react to what had happened.
The former Wild At Heart actress declared: ‘It was a joke!’ and Simon came on stage to give a cake to the boys, who quickly returned the favor when they confirmed that the record was never real to begin with.
As the auditions came to a close, Simon noted that the audience had been the “best” they had ever had and a Bugsy Malone-style pie fight ensued.
Dec shouted: ‘There we are!’
Ant said: ‘What a way to end auditions for 2024!’
Amanda seemed shocked as she realized what had happened and soon leaned over to former MisTeeq singer Alesha to react to what had happened.
The word ‘GOTCHA YOU!’ was projected on the screen above them and the penny dropped, where the children realized that Simon had played a prank on them.
Simon and Ant rushed to hug him when it turned out it had all been a big joke.
The former X Factor judge was hysterical at the Bugsy Malone-style fight scene during the final round of auditions.
The semi-finals will be broadcast live over the next few days and the grand finale of the show will take place on Sunday, June 2.
According to ITV, it is the biggest entertainment series of the year so far on any channel.
But the talent show has still seen a marked decline in popularity over the years, with current ratings a far cry from its peak of 13 million in 2009.
The current series got off to a promising start last month, with overnight figures showing the launch episode saw an average of 5 million viewers tuning in, with a peak of 5.8 million.
