Simon: I Messed Up With Susan

Simon Cowell admits he was wrong? It's an unlikely revelation, but that's just what "Britain's Got Talent" judge Cowell recently wrote in the British newspaper Daily Mail about how he handled the Susan Boyle phenomenon.

"...The time has finally come for me to set a few things straight," Cowell wrote. "And I'm the first to hold my hands up and admit I've made mistakes."

Cowell said he thought "perhaps naively" that Boyle was in control throughout the competition process.

"When I asked her if she was enjoying herself, she replied: 'Simon, I am having the time of my life,"' Cowell wrote. "I was pleased. I thought whatever happens, we have changed this lady's life."

And her life was changed. But Cowell wrote, with all the fame that came from her surprising auditions and YouTube fame, she couldn't deal with certain aspects of the experience.

"I suddenly realized she didn't know how to cope with losing," Cowell wrote. "We didn't handle it well."

Early Show weather anchor and features reporter Dave Price said Monday on The Early Show that people are sometimes exploited by the show.

"Reality television, I think, searches for characters," Price said, "and sometimes at the expense of the character themselves."

But Cowell wrote he never went into show business to make children cry or upset "nice" women like Susan Boyle.

He wrote he knows the show "Britain's Got Talent" is often viewed as a "cruel circus" with him as the "evil ringmaster."

But he added he repeatedly asked Boyle if she could handle the show's demands, and she said she was enjoying herself. However, Cowell acknowledged the pressure began to take its toll, but he didn't see the signs of Boyle's downward spiral.

"She was nervous, yes," Cowell wrote of Boyle's final performance on the show, "but no more nervous than Paul Potts had been before his live final two years previously. She understood the significance of the night."

"Then, during the final show, at the crucial point when the dance group Diversity won," Cowell wrote, "I looked over at her face and thought: 'Christ, she doesn't know how to deal with not winning."'

Cowell wrote that he extended an offer to Boyle to help her produce an album, even after she got second place in the competition.

Boyle is currently performing some dates in the "Britain's Got Talent Live" tour, but Cowell has given her the option of taking some nights off if she is too exhausted.

"But, when she does perform," Cowell wrote, "I am thrilled by the reception she gets. Suffice it to say that whatever happens in the weeks ahead, I will continue to support her."

Cowell said he spoke with Boyle's family a few weeks ago, asking them if it was right for Susan to keep performing, even after it was apparent the experience was becoming stressful. Boyle's family said Cowell did the right thing, that Boyle always wanted the chance to sing, and the show gave her a chance at stardom.

As for the competition itself, Cowell wrote that the show, for all its controversies, is a way to help unknowns be known, and should be restricted as little as possible.

"Facing a series of public votes on a talent show is psychologically tough," Cowell wrote. "Yet who has the right to ban Susan Boyle, or anyone like her, from trying to sing her way out of one life and into another?"

"There is no easy way of achieving fame," Cowell wrote, "and no guaranteed or trusted way of dealing with it."