Britain’s Got Talent ventriloquist Jimmy Tamley has claimed producers “threw him under the bus”, following Simon Cowell’s walk-off during his semi-finals performance.
Viewers of Thursday’s live show saw the unimpressed judge storm off stage after being pulled up with David Walliams to take part in Jimmy’s act.
The ventriloquist has now claimed producers threw him “many curveballs” prior to his performance and was left “gobsmacked” and “traumatised” by the events that unfolded.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Jimmy claimed producers blocked him from using puppets as part of his act, insisting he use masks on one of the six main stars of BGT.
After he elected Simon, Jimmy said he was told by producers just hours before the live show that the music mogul had not been informed he would be participating.
“The criteria they worked on, was that he ‘liked surprises’,” Jimmy wrote. “This threw me a bit, as he is the top executive producer, and surely would have asked the question, ‘Who is Jimmy going to be using today?’.
“I, maybe naively, had assumed he’d been consulted on this. I had to trust my immediate producers, in that he’d go along with it.”
Jimmy continued: “Looking at it now, I wonder what the producers were thinking. Was I, in effect being THROWN UNDER THE BUS? He clearly wasn’t willing to go along with any of this, and in his after comments he indicated that the producers would indeed be murdered.”
Speaking of how he felt after Simon’s walk-off, Jimmy continued: “Immediately after my performance, I was completely gobsmacked and traumatised by what had just happened to me on LIVE television.
“I was livid at the producers, and told them in no uncertain terms I wanted to leave, and would not go on for the results bit, despite people voting for me.”
He added that a psychologist checked he was OK before eventually agreeing to return to the stage for the result.
“I could never in my wildest dreams in the previous weeks leading up to this, have foreseen what happened to me,” Jimmy said.
While claiming that many of the people he worked with on the show were “very helpful and creative”, he added: “This is water off a ducks back to Britain’s Got Talent producers, as it’s generated a lot of publicity like they’ve had before and will continue this way, if they treat performers, who are not used to television and media, this way.”
A Britain’s Got Talent spokesperson had no comment to offer when contacted by HuffPost UK.