Simon Cowell is stepping away from the “America’s Got Talent” judges’ table for weeks of filming ahead of a medical procedure.
The 65-year-old television mogul will miss multiple weeks of production as he prepares to undergo a routine procedure related to lingering back issues, Fox News Digital has learned. The show is currently scheduling guest judges to fill in during his absence.
Reports said the procedure is tied to Cowell’s longstanding back problems rather than any new or serious health concern.
Cowell has battled back issues since his electric-bike accident in 2020. “It could have been a lot worse. When I saw the X-ray, I really nearly smashed my spine to pieces, so I literally wouldn’t (have) been able to walk,” he told Extra six months after the accident.
The TV personality admitted he immediately knew he had broken his back after falling off the bike. “You’re not supposed to get up, but I made myself kind of get carried into my bedroom, which is right there at the end of the house, and I’m lying there and I’m kind of passing out. I mean, it was just surreal,” he told the outlet.
Cowell was later injured in another e-bike incident in 2022. At the time, a source said that Cowell had “crashed to the ground” and “broke his arm.”
Cowell’s breakthrough in front of the camera came in 2001 when he joined Britain’s “Pop Idol” as a judge. His cutting — and often funny — assessments of contestants quickly became his trademark.
American audiences got to know him the following year as one of the original judges on “American Idol” alongside Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson.
Cowell subsequently built a television empire, creating “The X Factor” and developing the “Got Talent” franchise while helping launch or promote acts including One Direction, Fifth Harmony and Il Divo.
In the viral moment that sparked his ongoing health struggles, Cowell crashed his electric bike in August 2020 near his home in Malibu, California, requiring six hours of back surgery and the insertion of a metal rod. The accident occurred when he attempted to test the powerful bike, which he later admitted he had not fully understood how to operate.
The show has not announced specific guest judges or a firm timeline for Cowell’s return to the panel.