Britain's Got Talent

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ITV 1

Britain's Got Talent is a British television show on ITV and part of the Got Talent series. Presented by Ant & Dec, it is a search for Britain's next best talent act featuring singers, dancers, comedians, variety acts, and other talents of all ages.
The series made its début soon after the conclusion of its U.S. counterpart, America's Got Talent, and is the creation of The X Factor creator and Pop Idol/American Idol judge 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). Originally the judge line-up would 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 magician and former CITV presenter, Stephen Mulhern.
Auditions

Acts from the pre-auditions that progress to the next stage perform in front of a studio audience and three judges, having just 1 minute to impress them. The audition process is similar to The Gong Show but with each judge pressing a buzzer instead of banging a gong if they have seen enough. Each buzzer can only be pressed once, and when all three have been pressed the act must stop. However, this does not necessarily mean that the act will receive a "no" from the judges.

Once an act finishes or is stopped, the judges express their opinions and decide whether they would like to see the act in the next stage of the competition. Acts need to receive a majority vote to go through, and the audience is invited to express their views (often boos or cheers) which may have a positive or negative impact on a judge's decision should the judge be unsure on whether to put the act through. On certain ticketing websites the audience are described as a 'fourth judge'.

The acts who are put through are called back to London, where in groups they meet the judges once again and are told whether they have been successful in making it to the semi-finals. In series 1, judges had to pick from 24 acts, although later extended this to 26 when they placed 2 additional acts into the semi-finals that they had previously rejected, so there were 9 acts in two of the three semi-finals.

Some of the best known people to have audtioned on the show are: Susan Boyle and Connie Talbot.

[edit] Semi finals and final

The semi-final and final shows are broadcast live, with a varying number of semi-finals, followed by the one live final split into two episodes over one night. In Series 1, the 26 remaining acts performed across three semi-finals, with the six most popular acts from all the semi-finals winning a position in the final. Unlike the American version, judges may still end a performance early with three 'X's. 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. After the votes are counted the act who 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.