The Susan Boyle saga took a new turn today as the boss of British TV station ITV today strongly denied that the network was to blame for the Susan's trauma and public breakdown.

Peter Fincham said ITV was not to blame for Susan's breakdown and that it had not failed to care for her.

And he claimed that ITV would have been rightly criticized if it had tried to stop Susan singing.

"After the initial impact of the first performance she absolutely wanted to continue to the semis, hopefully the finals, and onto a singing career," he said.

"Would we have been right to say no you shouldn't, you can't? Imagine the criticism."

"In our view it was the right thing [to let her continue]. Beyond that her career is not with us it is with management company Syco. I am quite confident we did the right thing in going with her clearly stated wish that she wanted to try to win the final."

Fincham was speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh Television Festival.

Fincham denied that ITV had failed in its duty of care to Susan.

"No I don't think we did," he said. "I think the huge impact of Britain's Got Talent and Susan Boyle put in the spotlight the relationship of contestants in these sorts of shows."

However, Fincham admitted that duty of care was now a far bigger for issue for TV shows because of the success of these supercharged talent shows.

"As a result the scrutiny contestants are under is rising," he said. "The route from obscurity to fame has never been faster."

Another ITV show, "X Factor" changed its rules after Susan's breakdown to include a battery of psychological testing for contestants once they clear the initial hurdles.