Simon Cowell made gay joke about Rylan Clarke-Neal on live TV and people were shocked

People were very surprised.

Saturday night'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."

#xfactor just fell into the gutter! @SimonCowell asks @Rylan about his #BackDoor #awks @TheXFactor pic.twitter.com/IuAuq8PwPy

— FRQfm (@FRQfm) October 15, 2016

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 https://twitter.com/murderous_andy/status/787399329682259968 https://twitter.com/tvgenius05/status/787400327519666177 Though everyone was shocked, some people found it funny. https://twitter.com/robmfairweather/status/787644257238679552 https://twitter.com/johnjamesduffy/status/787613335617404928   https://twitter.com/GemmaWrightx/status/787399463358914561 Rylan himself commented on the situation on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rylan/status/787614979558150145 This is the second time in recent months that Rylan has had to respond to a 'gay joke' on Twitter after being called a 'mincer' on This Morning.