Judges Apologize To Susan Boyle

On Early Show, They Say Sorry For Judging Her At First By Her Looks, Before She Belted Out Tune That Made Her Famous

(CBS)  Susan Boyle's fame is spreading, and her talent even has two people who sat in judgment of her apologizing to her.

The middle-aged Scottish volunteer church worker. who literally raised eyebrows as she wowed everyone with her rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" in a prelim round of the TV competition, "Britain's Got Talent," has paparazzi at her door and fan mail piling up, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer -- not to mention millions upon millions of hits on the YouTube clip of her performance.

Her quiet life looking after an aging mother hid both talent and a sense of humor, Palmer observes.

On Thursday, Boyle agreed to sing for The Early Show from her living room, making newspaper and Internet headlines on both sides of  "the pond" -- in the U.S. and the U.K.

And while she made millions of fans with her sudden burst on the scene, Boyle says her dream is to sing for Queen Elizabeth -- something she'd get to do if she goes on to win "Britain's Got Talent."

On The Early Show Friday, two of the three judges when Boyle made her bow on "Britain's Got Talent" chatted with co-anchor Julie Chen.

Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan told Chen they were simply amazed when Boyle began to sing -- especially considering how they'd prejudged her by her looks.

"I mean," said Holden, "it's a very shallow thing to say but, obviously, the minute she walked onstage we all, and the audience, completely judged her on her appearance and everything else. And I hate saying that. But, you know, that true cliche, we judged a book by its cover, unfortunately, and we're all very cynical. The audience was jeering and booing and it was just really uncomfortable, wasn't it? And we were, 'Oh, just please be good or just get off. Because it's just -- we just need you to do something here,' because we were so dying for her."

Morgan said, "I would just like to apologize to Susan Boyle, because I think it's long overdue, because, from the clip, you know, (millions of) people could see that Simon Cowell (the third judge that night -- he of "American Idol" fame) and I -- we don't have the best reputations, I think, for courtesy in America. I think we owe her on apology because it was an amazing performance. As I said, we were all laughing at her when she started, and by the end, the last laugh was on her."

Holden said the second the first notes came out of Boyle's mouth that night, they knew they "had found gold."

Raves poured into CBSNews.com after Boyle's Early Show appearance Thursday. Co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez read some of them on the show Friday.

[sandy7171]

Amanda Holden really makes me sick. She has had a free ride on Susan's coattails long enough. What were you thinking in hiring her CBS? Have you seen her website, her youtube trampclips, her downright unforgivable mocking of Susan Boyle on that Chatty Show? Don't you do your homework before hiring someone who has no talent? I don't know why she even got a job judging on a talent show because she has no talent. Aren't her 15 free minutes up yet? I will never watch any show on CBS that has Amanda Holden on it. I barely watch CBS as it is. You jumped the gun trying to get ratings by having someone who WAS affiliated with Susan Boyle, but we all know if we want anything relevant related to Susan Boyle, NBC is the place to go. GET RID OF AMANDA HOLDEN!!!

[PWattis]

Amanda Holden is a liability to the CBS Early Show. She cruelly mocked and imitated Susan Boyle on a British comedy show called "Chatty Man" in an episode which aired on Sunday August 16th. A video can be viewed on YouTube. Ms. Holden is a judge on Britain's Got Talent. Susan Boyle was a contestant. This was unprofessional and unethical behavior on the part of a judge toward a contestant. It reflects a betrayal of an implicit, if not explicit, trust that should exist between a talent show judge and contestant. I and many other fans of Susan Boyle will boycott CBS and its sponsors until Amanda Holden is no longer a correspondent with the CBS Early Show.

[bukmdanno]

I disagree with the descriptions of "plain, homely, and average looking", I think she's as beautiful on the outside as her soul and voice showed us she is on the inside. I also disagree the world was against her before we heard her voice. She gave a charming interview prior to singing, I'd bet millions, myself included, were very much on her side hoping she'd knock one out of the park, and boy did she ever!! Get well soon Susan, I can't wait to hear more!

[ChibiFae]

Wow.... just wow. That has really got to be one of the first "pure" and heart felt voices I have heard in a long time that did not come from the replaying of a song from many MANY years ago. (I may only be 24, but I have at least had the privilege to be brought up with music that today's garbage cannot compare to.)

Listening to this woman sing I honestly could say that I about started crying by how moved I felt, and I do hope that this woman makes it very far with that beautiful voice and heart of hers.

As for the looks, okay she may not fit the image of a super model or what we may perceive as "beautiful" but that would be because today's super models are altered by surgery, forced into torturous work out regimes, and altered beyond recognition when shown on magazine covers. But can you really say it matters? It's true that a pretty face would probably have made it easy to discover this miraculous singer.

At the same time though, just having another pretty face would make it so that she is soon forgotten about since people would just pay attention to the fact that she had a pretty face, a good voice and ignore her off the wall humor, or the harsh life that the woman had been living, and continues to live.

As a side note, perhaps it is stupid that I feel bad for the life she's lead up until now. That of a homebody, who has up until now never been kissed by a man, or really loved by someone other than her mother (or other immediate family) and a cat. But I can't help but be disturbed on some level how harshly this beautiful soul has been treated in life.

Also yes, I'm sure there are crap-tons more people who do get the shaft who may have some prodigious ability to do something such as this, but how often do these people push so hard so as to be seen for who they truly are?

[rgogirl]

There are millions of pple that don't have face lifts and perfect bodies. It's refreshing to see a real person instead of all the plastic movie stars and faces that are expressionless. I hope she stays herself as we have enought Madonnas' and Chers'.

A gift from God that is so beautiful it makes you want to cry!!! God help her and keep her safe from all the blood suckers that will want to make this wonderful person into a grotesque robot like star.

[Casey749]

Susan Boyle may be homely but those of you who have judged her soley by her appearance are truly ugly.

Her talent outshines you all.

[rixmix98]

To all the negative posters: Get a life. You're just jealous your pathic life will never amount to anything.

[gramto8]

Now she needs to drop the fugly act and buy a pair of tweezers.
Posted by rsmik at 11:32 PM : Apr 18, 2009


Why should she change the way she looks just because you do not like it? If she is comfortable with her looks, the hell with how you or anyone else feels about it. You are the 'fugly' one by the way you decide who is worthy of your supposedly 'good opinion'. IMO, your opinion doesn't mean fecal material.

[wyoming77]

To PhilistineTheArtLover

You are as ignorant as those that judge Susan Boyle before she sang.

[janadiane]

I love that Susan is an older, average looking woman. I love that she knocked everyone's socks off. I love that people from all over the globe are cheering for her.

[manuewa]

Judge not that ye be not judged. This lady is Awsome. I don't care what she looks like I deffinately would buy her CD's. Never underestimate the ugly duckling.

[manfromjapan]

>>> I think there was some manipulative editing going on to "enhance" the viewers' reaction when she starts singing. That's annoying.
Posted by realnews12 at 5:57 AM : Apr 19, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

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Oh, year,, you may be right .
These video itself might be the Scheme for money-making , that was made intentionally by someone who had made use of Susan .

Or I'm just a man of perverse character .

[Sakoma]

Its nice the woman can sing...its actually beautiful and wonderful but the truth is no matter how well she sings she is not a good looking woman. Sadly, humans are apt to look at the outer shell before they even consider the content and character of a person. That's what has always been the biggest flaw of humanity and which holds us back from gaining true harmony and progress.
As Martin Luther King once said in so many words: hopefully one day people will judge a person by his content and character and not by his LOOKS or COLOR of skin (outer shell)

[realnews12]

Regarding the questions about Simon's reaction to Susan's age: I think some of the editing was out of order or something cut out because his reaction did not make sense at all.

Posted by cwintx at 1:21 AM : Apr 18, 2009

I too have been wondering about this and thinking his reaction didn't make sense. That he would roll his eyes at hearing she's 47 doesn't make sense for 3 reasons: 1) he could see by looking at her that she was around that age, thus her announcing her age was hardly a revelation, 2) he's nearly 50 himself, 3) as a judge, he probably has a list of contestants they are going to see, along with their ages and probably other information. I think there was some manipulative editing going on to "enhance" the viewers' reaction when she starts singing. That's annoying.

[thenemo1-2009]

We have someone with true talent no trick mikes or Willie Vanilly crapola.
In a search for talent and not a naked hooker doing voice overs gee they actually found a
white Pearl Baily or Billy Holiday.
Bravo.

[rsmik]

So the judges apologized because she's ugly? You can see from the clip that this woman was totally confident and knew exactly what kind of reaction she would get. Now she needs to drop the fugly act and buy a pair of tweezers.

[stn_sage]

This was AMAZING!

From her appearance, from listening to her speech, and the content of her statements, one was left with the impression that she was an ordinary citizen! And expectations were low!

Then, she SANG! WOW! What a great voice she has! She gave new meanly to the phrase, 'don't judge a book by its' cover'!

If it had been America-based 'American Idol', excellent voice or not, she probably wouldn't
have been given ' the time of day'! At least she got her chance in the U.K., that's more than
she would have gotten in the U.S.!

[trpcham123]

You are going to find your own? For who? Why? What a bunch of shallow, narcissistic, egomaniacs. The only thing you can do now is MAKE one. And, she won't come close to the real thing. And, if you do, she will be only yours, not OURS. For now, Susan is part of all of us. Why take that away or diminish that? Why should we even be impressed that you want to even try?

[kindofacynic]

What is the big deal? Susan Boyle has a really great voice and is 'undiscovered' at 47. Every community has at least one person with a fantastic,untrained, voice who doesn't look like Spears, etc. What IS the big deal is that someone actually allowed her to sing on a major program so everyone outside her community could hear her voice and see the sweet person that she is. Look around and you will see thousands like her if you just look.

[aka_KJB]

Leave your politics at the door. She's a born & bred Briton and her desire is to sing for the Queen. Not everybody has the US's type of government and considering how *we've* managed to screw it up at times, that's probably a good thing.
Boyle is great but now we've got The Early Show looking for "a Susan Boyle" so once again, we're going on looks, not talent first. They want the singing equivalent of a 'sleeper' street racer, someone dumpy who can belt out a tune. Loads of church choirs are looking at their rosters right now. And as good as Britain may be, nobody beats the US for big, dumpy looking women.