'Britain's Got Talent' contestant says he was 'thrown under the bus' by the show

Britain’s Got Talent ventriloquist contestant Jimmy Tamley has claimed that he was “thrown under the bus” by show’s producers, following his semi-final performance that saw judge Simon Cowell storm off stage on live television.

For his semi-final act, Tamley placed masks over the faces of Cowell and fellow judge David Walliams before attempting to make them do the can-can. While Walliams was perfectly comfortable dancing on stage, Cowell angrily stormed off, arguably damaging the contestant’s performance.

Tamley has since taken to his Facebook page to claim he was “thrown under the bus” by the show, stating that he was asked to use masks rather than any of his “established” puppet routines.

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In the lengthy post, he wrote: “After it had been confirmed that I had been put through to the semi finals, I was asked to start preparing and submitting ideas for my semi final performance.”

He added that his first routine, involving a puppet and a judge with a mask, was well-received by producers, but was rejected by executive producers in the US.

He continued: “It was also made clear that they didn’t want me to be portrayed as a traditional ventriloquist and told me they didn’t want to see puppets, and I would need to be using masks for the semi final and potential final routine.”

Tamley explained that he wasn’t allowed to use any audience members in his act, instead having to pick from the four judges and Ant and Dec.

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“So from this point onwards I knew I could not use any of my well established puppet routines, and no masks on audience members, only the 6 main characters in the show.”

He went on to say that he was worried about Cowell being unaware that he’d be participating in his semi-final act, but that he was told the judge ‘likes surprises’.

“You could see on TV that Simon was coerced up onstage by David and was reluctant to sit on the stool and have a mask put on his face,” he added.

Towards the end of the post, Tamley claimed he was left “gobsmacked” and “traumatised” after Cowell stormed off during his live performance, adding that he was seen to by a psychologist after he threatened to leave the show before the results segment.