Simon Cowell apologises for making inappropriate gay joke on live TV

He regretted it straight away.

The weekend's Xtra Factor got a lot of attention due to Simon's 'joke' about presenter Rylan Clarke-Neal. During the live show, Rylan introduced segment that involved the judges deciding which fan question to answer from behind a set of front doors. Speaking of the segment Rylan says "I love a front door". Simon then added:

"I thought you liked a back door"

The audience and judges seem to gasp at his 'joke' and Simon quickly turn away from the camera. Simon seems to immediately regret the joke, turning bright red and apologising:

"I shouldn't have said that," he said. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry."

Rylan played along and joked with the judge, before adding, "it's alright I'll get over it." https://twitter.com/FRQfm/status/787402322527850500?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Rylan was praised for handling the situation so well, while many took to twitter to express their surprise and shock at Simon. https://twitter.com/DowngirlsNW1/status/787399770029617152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/murderous_andy/status/787399329682259968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/tvgenius05/status/787400327519666177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Although not everyone was shocked. Indeed some people felt it was just Carry On style humour... https://twitter.com/robmfairweather/status/787644257238679552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/johnjamesduffy/status/787613335617404928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/GemmaWrightx/status/787399463358914561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Rylan himself commented on the situation on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rylan/status/787614979558150145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Catch up with the latest episode of Football Friday Live: