It's been many moons since the series that launched a thousand more first aired (Pop Idol, of course), but Simon Cowell's place at the head of the reality TV table still remains – even if a lot has changed since then.
Proving that his Mr Nasty persona may not have mellowed quite as much as he first wanted us to think, Simon – who's currently judging on America's Got Talent – recently stopped a 12-year-old singer mid-way through her performance... for the second time.
After first stopping her during her audition, Simon once again interrupted Ansley Burns during a performance of 'Good Girl' by Carrie Underwood on Tuesday's (July 30) episode of AGT. "Ansley, Ansley, sorry," he said, as he held his hand up and magically cut the music.
Related: Simon Cowell reveals TWO series of The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent will air this year
*Record scratch* *Freeze frame* and all that.
"The track actually was overwhelming you like before," he told the singer. "It was pushing your vocals so much."
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Fortunately, Simon let Ansley pick up the song where she left off: "When you came down in tone and tempo – I really liked your voice at that point.
"Can you just do the second half of the song a cappella and make it your version?" he asked.
After getting a second chance from Simon, Ansley sadly missed out on progressing to the next round of the competition, but hey, at least she was given a fair shot by the judges.
But, seeing as it was actually the second time that the talent show judge had put a temporary stop to one of Ansley's performances, it's no surprise that Twitter wasn't exactly happy.
Many flocked to social media to make it known that they thought Ansley deserved to go through.
Meanwhile, in the world of The X Factor, Simon recently revealed that the upcoming celebrity and all-star versions of the show will have a new theme song.
"We're scrapping the theme song – I can't listen to that again," he said last month. "You get into a habit with these things but it's one of the three worst theme songs I've heard."
Let's just hope he doesn't stop the new theme half way through.
The X Factor will return to ITV later this year. America's Got Talent airs on NBC in the US and on Netflix in the UK.
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