{"id":662037,"date":"2026-08-29T10:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T10:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/662037\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T10:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T10:57:21","slug":"simon-cowells-first-replacement-for-americas-got-talent-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/662037\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Cowell\u2019s first replacement for America\u2019s Got Talent announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Simon Cowell\u2019s temporary replacement <\/a>has been announced for America\u2019s Got Talent, as the entertainment mogul recovers from surgery. <\/p>\n

Cowell, 66, stepped away from the reality TV show <\/a>to undergo a routine back surgery, with a number of guest judges planned to fill in for him.<\/p>\n

Comedian Kenan Thompson<\/a>, 48, will take the first spot on Tuesday 1 September. <\/p>\n

\u201cA comedy legend is taking over the Judges\u2019 table!\u201d NBC<\/a> announced on its America\u2019s Got Talent Instagram account, alongside a photo of Thompson. \u201cKenan Thompson is joining AGT as a guest Judge! Don\u2019t miss his guest appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson will join judges Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Sofia Vergara, as well as host Terry Crews<\/a>, having previously done so during the live quarterfinals in 2020 when Cowell was also absent.<\/p>\n

The Emmy-nominated comedian is known as a longtime castmember on Saturday Night Live, and for his sitcom Kenan and Kel with frequent collaborator Kel Mitchell. <\/p>\n

This year he also had a role in Scary Movie, alongside co-stars Marlon Wayans, Anna Faris and Regina Hall.<\/p>\n

Cowell has undergone a series of operations in recent years after breaking his back in an electric bike accident in 2020<\/a>, which required six hours of surgery. <\/p>\n

His injuries prevented him from appearing in the 2020 season of Britain\u2019s Got Talent, when he was temporarily replaced by former winner Ashley Banjo<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"SimonSimon Cowell has undergone a number of surgeries for his back since 2020 (Getty)<\/p>\n

In 2022, Cowell told OK! magazine that he was lucky to survive the ordeal<\/a>, commenting: \u201cI didn\u2019t talk about it too much at the time. I kept a lot back. It was a lot worse than people thought. I had a lot of long-term nerve damage as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admitted: \u201cIf there was one good thing about lockdown, it was that it gave me the time to heal because I wasn\u2019t working on a TV show. I was able to walk a lot and strengthen my legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

That year, Cowell suffered another e-bike crash in which he was admitted to hospital with a broken arm, badly bruised cheek and possible concussion. <\/p>\n

His injuries were less severe than the first accident, however, and he was released from hospital on the same day. <\/p>\n

Further guest judges for America\u2019s Got Talent are still to be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,128],"class_list":["post-662037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117178444927292683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}