The episode that went down in history and amazed the world on America’s Got Talent 2025
Simon Cowell reveals singer Cheryl turned down Britain’s Got Talent judging role
Updated / Monday, 17 Feb 2025 21:00
Simon Cowell has labelled Amanda Holden the “Britain’s Got Talent queen” as he revealed singer Cheryl turned down a judging role on the show.
The popular ITV talent show returns for its 18th series on Saturday with judges Cowell, Holden, singer Alesha Dixon and former Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli.
TV duo Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly return to host the show, with social media star and musician KSI joining the panel as a guest judge.
Cowell said of 54-year-old TV and radio presenter Holden, who has been on the judging panel since the first series, that the secret to her BGT success is that she “loves the acts”.
He explained: “That’s her, she honestly loves it. You know, every time I talk to her it makes me laugh because I say, ‘you are loving this, aren’t you?.’
“Because there are days where I’m knackered and there’s still an hour to go.
“And I’m like, wow, it’s been a long day, and she’s like, ‘yeah, but it’s brilliant, isn’t it?.’
“She is our Britain’s Got Talent queen and she deserves that crown.”
The music mogul added: “And you know what? She was an interesting booking because we’d offered the role to Cheryl Cole, as she was known in those days.
“A week before filming, she calls me and goes, ‘I just can’t do it’ and wouldn’t give me a reason. I think she was freaked out.
“We literally had two judges and a week to book someone. I just knew it had to be Amanda because I’d met her and I really liked her, she was very funny and I just thought she’d fit the show perfectly.
“Fast forward 18 years and she’s still a huge success and we have become great friends. I do consider her one of my best friends.”
Girls Aloud member Cheryl has previously been a judge on Cowell’s former ITV singing show The X Factor, serving on its panel from 2008 to 2010, joining the show’s US version in 2011, before returning between 2014 and 2015.
Syco Entertainment boss Cowell went on to speak about a near death experience he went through while filming the latest series when he was asked to lay next to a line of watermelons as a contestant smashed them with a sledgehammer.
The 65-year-old said: “It’s that feeling when you kind of think somebody doesn’t want you on the show anymore. It was that.
“It was the closest, genuinely, where I’m thinking, ‘they actually want to kill me.’
“And I swear to God, that’s how I felt because this guy got really nervous and he’d slipped and was shaking as he was smashing these watermelons.
“The health and safety guys, normally quite annoying, actually stopped him. Thank god, they saved my life.”
Host McPartlin said he and the rest of the cast were “scared for Simon Cowell’s life” and added that there is “a lot of danger” in this year’s series.
Last year’s series of Britain’s Got Talent was won by singer Sydnie Christmas, who sung Somewhere Over The Rainbow in the show’s final winning with 27.2% of the vote.
She beat out numerous other contestants including runner-up Jack Rhodes, a magician, and third-placed dance duo Abigail And Afronitaaa.
The show has run since 2007 and has produced winners including Susan Boyle, Paul Potts and Diversity.
The series’ champion receives £250,000 in prize money and the opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Performance.
Britain’s Got Talent will return on Saturday, 22 February, at 7pm on Virgin Media One.
Source: Press Association
JPMorgan is about to spend $1 billion on hundreds of rental homes across the US on the way to becoming a megalandlord
Nov 17, 2022, 9:01 PM GMT+7ShareSave
- JPMorgan and Haven Realty Capital entered into a joint venture agreement on November 15.
- The companies plan to acquire up to $1 billion in build-to-rent properties, starting in Atlanta.
- Housing experts warn that it can take a long time to bring build-to-rent properties to market.
A new joint venture between one of America’s largest banks and a growing build-to-rent operator is the latest sign that big investors are undeterred by the volatile real estate market.
Haven Realty Capital and JPMorgan Chase’s asset management arm said they will invest up to $1 billion to develop build-to-rent single-family homes across the country, according to a November 15 announcement.
The duo plans to seed their investment with up to $415 million in equity. The first installment will include a purchase of 250 homes in three communities around the Atlanta metropolitan area, and the deal could close within the next 90 days, the statement said.
The partnership comes at a time when demand for new housing continues to slide, according to data from the Census Bureau. Meanwhile, the National Association of Homebuilders reports that builder confidence is at its lowest level since 2012 because of rising interest rates and construction material costs.
“The for-sale housing market has been significantly hampered by recession fears, inflation and rising interest rates placing a burden on homebuilders and their ability to add to the housing stock,” Haven’s founder Sudha Reddy said in the statement, adding that the partnership will allow the company to work with homebuilders who “are becoming increasingly comfortable selling entire communities to operators” like Haven.
Build-to-rent is a ‘useful response to the market’s needs’
The build-to-rent trend initially emerged during the Great Recession as a way for homebuilders to continue adding supply at a time when consumers were not buying homes. It refers to a process where developers construct an entire community of typically detached single-family homes that are later rented out by an operating partner.
The trend gained steam during the COVID-19 pandemic as demand for single-family homes and suburban living skyrocketed.
Haven Realty has emerged as a national leader in the space, with a portfolio of 35 build-to-rent communities valued at more than $1.2 billion. Similarly, JPMorgan is one of a handful of companies that are pioneering digital rent payment options for renters and landlords.
Institutional investors like Fundrise as well as pension funds, and public companies have been steadily acquiring single-family homes to rent for a profit. This has only increased competition for homes at a time when housing affordability is a primary concern for many.
However, some, like Tomasz Piskorski, a professor of real estate at Columbia Business School, believe that the build-to-rent model is more efficient than the traditional model of selling each newly built home to separate private individual buyers.
He told Insider in early November that the build-to-rent trend is a “useful response to the market’s needs.”
“Professional rental companies in some ways bring more efficiency and they might help solve affordability problems because of very high mortgage rates right now,” Piskorski said. “A lot of people simply cannot afford to buy a home.”
Not everybody agrees with Piskorski’s assessment.
Housing experts like John Burns, of the eponymous real estate consulting firm in Phoenix, Arizona, have cautioned developers against going “all-in” on build-to-rent because it can take a long time to bring those communities to market.
“We’re still very bullish overall, but not everything’s going to work out,” Burns told Insider in October.
