Yet the contestants just kept on singing! This is how you do reality TV.
Natalie Holt didn't win Britain's Got Talent when she was a contestant last year, but she certainly stole the show on Saturday night's big finale.
The 30-year old violinist was part of the orchestra backing the performance of opera singers Richard and Adam Johnson, and near the end of their baritone rendition of "The Impossible Dream," she stormed to the front and started flinging a carton's worth of eggs at the judge's table. She had a big 'ol smile on her face the whole time — even when security tackled and escorted her off the stage.
Cowell was a casualty of the yolk missiles, and had to take off his jacket after the duo's song. Incredibly, even as Holt was seized and removed from the stage, the singing went on and, beyond Cowell making the slight wardrobe adjustment, and as the song ended, they just made a quick reassurance that the egging wasn't some sort of intended visual metaphor for Don Quixote tilting at windmills.
Holt, whose orchestral group Raven competed in BGT last year, later told the Telegraph, "I basically took a stand against people miming on television and against Simon and his dreadful influence on the music industry."
Note to Piers Morgan: keep your eyes peeled. Holt's last tweet, which came in December, read, "Thinking about starting a petition to stop Piers Morgan being sent back over...."