Britain's Got Talent

Britain's Got Talent
Opening Titles.
Format	Talent Show
Created by	Simon Cowell
Presented by	Anthony McPartlin Declan Donnelly
Judges	Simon Cowell (2007–present) Piers Morgan (2007–present) Amanda Holden (2007–present)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	54 (as of 7 June 2010)
Production
Producer(s)	FremantleMedia Talkback Thames SYCOtv
Running time	30 – 150 mins
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV Network (also on ITV1 HD, STV HD); TV3 Ireland
Picture format	576i (16:9 SDTV) 1080i (16:9 HDTV) (2010–present)
Original run	9 June 2007 (2007-06-09) – Present

Britain's Got Talent (often shortened to BGT) is a British television show on ITV and TV3 Ireland, part of the Got Talent series. Presented by Ant & Dec, singers, dancers, comedians, variety acts, and other performers compete against each other for audience support. The winner of each series receives £100,000 and is given the opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of members of the Royal Family, including the Queen. The first series of the talent show began on 9 June 2007, and was broadcast daily with a live final on 16 July 2007, in which Paul Potts won. Street-dancer George Sampson went on to win the second series of the show on 31 May 2008. The third series began on 11 April 2009, and ended on 30 May 2009, with Diversity winning the competition, while Susan Boyle, whose audition performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" sparked an Internet sensation, ended up in second place. Series 4 premiered on 17 April 2010, and ended with the live finale shown on ITV on 5 June 2010 in which acrobatic gymnastics group Spelbound were declared winners.^[1]

History

The show's format was created by The X Factor creator, Pop Idol/American Idol judge and Sony Music Entertainment A&R Executive Simon Cowell, who has created a Got Talent series across the globe. On 12 February 2007, it was announced by ITV the judges would be Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan (who had also judged America's Got Talent) and Amanda Holden (a late replacement for Cheryl Cole, who later became a judge on The X Factor in 2008). Originally the judge line-up was to have been Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and David Hasselhoff, from America's Got Talent. In a similar fashion to The X Factor, the show has an ITV2 counterpart called Britain's Got More Talent, presented by the magician and former CITV presenter Stephen Mulhern.

It was originally planned that the show would be aired in 2005 (before America's Got Talent) and would be presented by Paul O'Grady. However, after Paul O'Grady's defection to Channel 4 for The Paul O'Grady Show, he refused to appear in another ITV show, so the series was put on hold after just one rehearsal show.^[2][3]

The Got Talent format has been adopted in a number of other countries, however, the original British version has not been broadcast in any other country (except Ireland) due to unsolved rights issues. Television stations in the Scandinavian countries have expressed an interest in showing the UK version but not been able to acquire the rights.

Format

The auditions take place in front of the judges and a live audience at a different city across Britain. Unlike the X factor, at any time during the audition, the judges may show disapproval to the act by pressing a buzzer which lights a large red X on the stage. If all the judges press their buzzers, the act must end immediately. Voting works on a best-of-three basis, with the sole exception of the auditions in Manchester during series 3, where 3 positive votes were required.

After the auditions, the judges have to whittle almost 200 successful acts down to just 24 in series 1 or 40 in series 2–3. All of the performers are called back to discover if they have progressed to the live semi-finals.

The semi-final and final shows are broadcast live from Fountain Studios in Wembley (which is also used for The X Factor), with a varying number of semi-finals, followed by the one live final split into two episodes over one night. The remaining acts perform across a number of semi-finals, with the two most popular acts from each semi-finals winning a position in the final. Judges may still end a performance early with three Xs. The judges are again asked to express their views on each act's performance.

After all acts have performed, phone lines open for a short time, while the public vote for the act they think were the best. After the votes have been counted, the act that has polled the highest number of public votes is automatically placed in the final. The judges then choose between the second and third most popular acts, with the winner of that vote also gaining a place in the final. All other acts are then eliminated from the competition.

The show's secondary theme song is "Lux Aeterna" (originally from the movie Requiem for a Dream), which is used to create tension. It is also used for the judges "walk-in" at the beginning of every live show.

Britain's Got Talent has been criticised by psychologist Glenn Wilson who referred to it as a "freak show". He states that "[contestants'] deficiencies and shortcomings are as important as their talent. We enjoy the stress we are putting these people under – will they or will they not survive?"^[4]

The treatment of contestants at the audition stage was heavily criticised by the Daily Mail, which described applicants being kept waiting for over 10 hours with no food or drink provided, with no certainty of being allowed to perform more than a few seconds of their act. It also detailed how staff intentionally built up the hopes of low-quality performers in order to maximise the dramatic effect of the judges' put-downs, and the fine points of the contracts performers must sign, which gives the show infinite freedom to "modify" the footage for their own purposes, and to use the footage indefinitely for whatever purpose they choose.^[5]

Britain's Got More Talent

Britain's Got More Talent is a companion show that airs on digital channel ITV2 and on TV3 Ireland, after the main ITV1 Britain's Got Talent show. It features behind-the-scenes footage of Britain's Got Talent and shows the emotional responses of the contestants after the judges comment on their performances. The commissioning of Britain's Got More Talent was prompted by the success of Xtra Factor, an X Factor companion show screened on ITV1.

Britains Got More Talent is currently hosted by Stephen Mulhern. Stephen Mulhern was also host of the Britain's Got Talent: Live Tour in 2008 but Patrick McGuinness took up the position in 2010.

Each year after the series has come to an end, Britain's Got Talent has a week of special programmes entitled Britain's Got Talent: Best and Worst, featuring the best and worst auditions from the series, ranging from 2 to 5 episodes each year. This series is also hosted by Stephen Mulhern. Though the series may feature clips of Ant and Dec interviewing the acts beforehand.

Each year before the series starts, "Britain's Got Talent" has a special program titled "Most Talented" featuring interviews of the winner(s) and their progress since winnning.

Series One

Series one of Britain's Got Talent began on 9 June 2007 and ended on 17 June 2007. The first five shows covered the audition stages and the final three shows were the live semi-finals and final. Altogether, 24 (26) acts performed in the semi-finals, eight acts in each episode, with a further two acts disqualified from the competition before the semi-finals were aired. The series was eventually won by Paul Potts.

Series Two

The 2008 series of Britain's Got Talent included notable differences from the 2007 series, including the fact that the auditions visited Scotland and that there were 40 in the live semi-finals. The series also ran for longer, this time airing for seven weeks instead of one. The series was won by street-dancer George Sampson, with dual dance group Signature coming in second and singer Andrew Johnston third. Other acts in the final included martial arts duo Strike, dance troupe Nemesis, 12-year-old mezzo-soprano Faryl Smith, junior dance couple Cheeky Monkeys.

Series Three

As announced at the end of Series 2, Britain's Got Talent returned on 11 April 2009.^[6] Ant & Dec returned as the hosts of the show. Sister-show Britain's Got More Talent with Stephen Mulhern has also returned, as announced in the last episode of the second series.

The 2009 panel of judges consists of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. Kelly Brook was originally announced as a new fourth judge, reportedly being offered £200,000 for the role,^[6] but was fired after just six days, having acted as a judge in Manchester only, just one of the five audition venues.^[7] According to Cowell, the reason given for sacking Brook was because the producers decided the format was "too complicated" with four judges.

The application process took place throughout January and February 2009 with auditions being held in five of Britain's major cities: Manchester for three days, where the judges saw a total of 120 auditionees; Glasgow for one day, viewing a total of 40 auditionees; Birmingham for three days, watching a further 120 auditionees; London for three days, seeing 128 acts; and Cardiff for one day, where they saw 40 auditionees.

The "First Round Call-Backs" took place in London on Saturday 7 February, where 40 acts were made aware that they would be competing in the live semi-finals in May.

Britain's Got Talent 2009 started on 11 April and there were five semi-final shows taking place beginning from 24 May, until the final on 30 May.

One of the most notable performances for the series was by Susan Boyle, a 48-year-old Scottish woman. Boyle sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical Les Misérables. The performance earned a unanimous "yes" vote and resounding astonishment from the judges.^[8] Her performance helped lift the show to a launch record of 11.2 million viewers. Within five days of her initial appearance, YouTube recordings of the event had collectively generated more than 100 million views. Boyle also attracted widespread international media coverage.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]}

It is highly thought that this media coverage led to Susan Boyle being admitted to the psychiatric clinic The Priory.^[16]

However, other people in the final included; Aidan Davis, Stavros Flatley, Flawless, Hollie Steel, Diversity, Shaun Smith, Shaheen Jafargholi, the grandfather and granddaughter singing duo "2 Grand" and Julian Smith who played the soprano saxophone. The top three finishers were Julian Smith, Diversity and Susan Boyle, with Diversity coming out as the winners, Susan Boyle finishing second and Julian Smith third.

Bookmakers are said to have made a fortune because of the unexpected result. "We are in shock and have made a six figure sum in what has been the biggest surprise in reality TV history. Susan was a certainty," said William Hill's spokesman Rupert Adams. William Hill estimate that over £3m was bet on the show in the final hour.^[17]

A contestant, who was rejected during the fifth audition show, Emma Czikai, is suing the show and Simon Cowell for injured feelings, unfairness and discrimination.

Series Four

The 2010 panel of judges remained the same as series 3 with Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan all returning for the start of the televised auditions on 18 January at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow,^[18] although Cowell has said that this will be his last year doing the auditions.^[19] Auditions were then held in Manchester at the Manchester Opera House, Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre.^[20] Newcastle's The Journal Tyne Theatre, Birmingham's Birmingham Hippodrome and ended on 10 February at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. Due to illness, Simon was unable to attend the filming of the Birmingham auditions and Louis Walsh stood in for him at the last minute, the first time that Cowell has missed an audition show in his entire career.^[21]

The first programme of Series 4 aired on 17 April 2010.^[22] Spelbound were declared the winners after the final was held on 5 June 2010, with Twist and Pulse coming in second place and Kieran Gaffney in 3rd place. Other finalists included Paul Burling, Tobias Mead, Christopher Stone, Tina and Chandi, Connected, Janey Cutler and Liam McNally.

High-street bookmakers Coral reported one of their biggest gambles in reality TV history on piano playing funny man Kev Orkian to win the talent show stating "With the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent set to get underway in just a few hours, Coral are reporting one of the biggest gambles in reality TV history on piano playing funny man Kev Orkian to win the talent show. Orkian has been cut from 100/1 to 9/1 with the firm, and he is now the fourth favourite behind Spellbound, who are 2/1 favourites, Olivia Archbold (7/2) and Liam McNally, at 13/2. Coral spokesman Gary Burton told Bettingpro: "The few pounds we saw first thing this morning at 100/1 and 80/1 quickly turned into three figure bets at shorter prices, he will cost us a fortune if he wins. It's been an incredible punt!""^[23]. During the live semi-finals, Cowell and Morgan both buzzed him, though Holden allowed him to finish. He didn't make it through to the final.

Ironically, despite missing out on a place in the final and losing the chance to perform at the Royal Variety Show, Kev Orkian beat winners Spelbound and the other finalists to the post of performing for Royalty. Orkian reportedly entertained HRH Prince Philip just one week after being booted off the show. On Thursday 10 June 2010, Kev Orkian performed for HRH The Prince Philip, celebrating his 89th birthday at the Guards Polo Club. The event fell behind schedule and Prince Philip was set to leave – before Kev got on stage – to get to another engagement. But as soon as Kev started his sketch the Prince decided to sit back down and watch the full act. So impressed was he that instead of rushing off at the end he stayed even longer to congratulate Kev in person. Prince Philip was quoted as saying “It’s a wonderful show. I thoroughly enjoyed your performance”^[24]. He had also performed for several other members of the Royal family including Prince Charles and Princess Michael of Kent. Kev Orkian was invited to perform for Prince Charles at Windsor Castle in 2009 for the British Forces Foundation 10th Gala Dinner. Classical singer Katherine Jenkins and comedian David Walliams also attended^[25].

Series Five

It was announced at the end of the final of the fourth series that the show will return for a fifth series in 2011. Ant & Dec are to return as main hosts on ITV1. Stephen Mulhern will return to host 'Britain's Got More Talent' on ITV2. It has been widely reported that Piers Morgan will leave the show due to new work commitments in the U.S.A however this piece of information has not yet been confirmed. It is also widely speculated that Simon Cowell with scale back his role on the show by not attending the audition process and this has been stated by Cowell in an interview however to date this also has not been confirmed.

Awards and Nominations

Britain's Got Talent has been nominated for two 'National Television Awards' in the category of 'Most Popular Talent Show' in 2007 and 2008, losing to its sister show The X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing respectively. Its shows presenters have won the award for 'Most Popular Entertainment Presenters' at the same awards in 2007 and 2008. It has also been nominated for two BAFTA Awards in 2008, but failed to win any awards. In 2007 and 2008, the show was nominated at the TV Quick and Choice Awards in the 'Best Talent Show' category, losing out to The X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing respectively.

In 2008, it was a recipient of a RTS Award for its technical achievements. It has also won four Nickelodeon UK Kids Choice Awards from five nominations. In 2009, it won its first ever Digital Spy Reality Award for Escala for Favourite Reality Contestant. It was further nominated in the Reality Show category, but lost to The X-Factor in the Reality TV Presenter category for Ant and Dec and 2 nominations in the Reality TV Judge category for Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan, but lost to Cheryl Cole from The X Factor.

Awards Table

Live Tour

On 17 April 2008, it was announced that a thirteen date live tour would be visiting the UK's major cities during the month of June, featuring the semi-finalists, the finalists and the winner from series two, along with a few surprises. Stephen Mulhern hosted the tour, which began on 6 June. None of the judging panel were present, and there was no live voting. After high demand for tickets, the tour was later extended to twenty two performances, including matinées. The tour featured all ten finalists, as well as semi-finalists Tracey Lee Collins & Anya Sparks. The tour also featured a duet with Faryl Smith and Andrew Johnston.

On 13 January 2009, a four date tour was announced via the Ticketmaster website, with the dates in Newcastle, Cardiff, Liverpool and in Manchester. More dates were later added and the tour ran for eighteen shows from 12 to 26 June 2009 and also travelled to Dublin, Birmingham, Belfast, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Nottingham, London, Aberdeen and Bournemouth.

The tour in 2009 included: Diversity, Flawless, Aidan Davis, Shaun Smith, Stavros Flatley, Hollie Steel, 2 Grand, Julian Smith, Shaheen Jafagholi, Susan Boyle, Darth Jackson, DJ Talent and the 2008 winner, George Sampson. Stephen Mulhern hosted the tour.

Top selling Albums

These albums were sold after Britain's Got Talent. The sales numbers are UK sales only.

Artists with BPI certified Albums

Artists without BPI certified Albums

International versions

• America's Got Talent
• Australia's Got Talent
• Italia's Got Talent
• India's Got Talent
• Indonesia's Got Talent
• SA's Got Talent (South Africa)
• World's Got Talent
• Supertalent in Vlaanderen (Belgium/Flanders)
• Das Supertalent (Germany)
• Pilipinas Got Talent (Philippines)
• Slovenia's Got Talent (Slovenia)
• Lietuvos Talentai (Lithuania)
• Supertalent (Croatia)
• Mam Talent! (Poland)
• A Minute of Fame (Russia)
• Ukraine's Got Talent (Ukraine)
• Talento Argentino (Argentina) 2008-2009
• La France a un incroyable talent
• Ja imam talenat! (I've Got Talent!) (Serbia) 2009
• Bulgaria's Got Talent (Bulgaria)
• Holland's Got Talent (The Netherlands)
• Qual é o Seu Talento? (Brazil)
• New Zealand's Got Talent
• Star King (South Korea)
• Mi Gran Talento (Panama)
• China's Got Talent (China)

Merchandise

Currently, there are four pieces of merchandise:

• Best of The Auditions DVD (2009)
• The Electronic Board Game (2009)
• The Magic Set (2009)
• Finalists of 2009: Annual 2010 (2009)

References

External links

• Britain's Got Talent at itv.com
• Britain's Got Talent at stv.tv
• Britain's Got Talent on Twitter
• MIG Management

Got Talent franchises National franchises Albania • Australia • China • Brazil • Estonia • France • Georgia • Greece • Hungary • India • Indonesia • Israel • Italy • New Zealand • Norway • Philippines • Poland • Portugal • Russia • Serbia • South Africa • Sweden • United Kingdom • United States International franchises World's Got Talent