He’s right, but Cowell has a way of flagellating contestants who impress him first time around, and then
start to disappoint. He does it every season with AI here in the States. He’s always right, but it was his initial overenthusiasm that’s to blame, NOT the contestant’s lack of ultimately Idol-worthiness. This season he did the same thing with Megan Joy and Lil Rounds, both of whom didn’t really deserve to go on competing with the final remaining contestants. Susan Boyle may rise to the occasion though.
On the other hand, and more likely, she may just be happy with her 3- 6 months of fame, which may be all she can squeeze out of this. The “music business” is what it is, and people like Susan Boyle are what they are, just as we, the audience, are, and we both know why Susan Boyle was a phenom instantly, and why we’d support her, not for 10 or 20 years, but for “a while”.
I don’t think you can fault him for “over enthusiasm” at the beginning. He shows it so rarely anyway. ;) If you sit and listen to a bunch of terrible singers and then some come by who seem passable you’d probably get a bit enthused too. Plus every season there are contestants who can’t keep up with the pressure or in Lil Rounds’ case got bad advice about what songs to sing and how to sing them. She impressed in the beginning but then tried to copy cat others. They are looking for Originality above everything else, not karaoke acts. Susan Boyle had Originality, that’s why they all lit up when she started to sing.