BGT 2011

Britain's Got Talent (series 5)

Britain's Got Talent
Series 5
Broadcast from	16 April 2011–4 June 2011
Judges	David Hasselhoff Amanda Holden Michael McIntyre Louis Walsh (London auditions) Simon Cowell (live shows)
Presenter(s)	Ant & Dec Stephen Mulhern (Britain's Got More Talent)
Broadcaster	ITV1 ITV2 (Britain's Got More Talent)
Winner: Jai McDowall
Runner-up
Ronan Parke
Chronology
◄ 2011

The fifth series of Britain's Got Talent began on 16 April 2011 and ended on 4 June 2011. The winner of the show was Jai McDowall, who received £100,000 and a place at the 2011 Royal Variety Performance. The show was hosted by Ant & Dec on ITV, while Stephen Mulhern presented Britain's Got More Talent on ITV2. This was the first year that both Britain's Got Talent and Britain's Got More Talent were shown completely in high definition, as in series 4 only the live shows were shown in HD, while Britain's Got More Talent remained in standard definition throughout.

Judges

For the first time since Britain's Got Talent began, there was a permanent change to the judging panel. In October 2010, Piers Morgan announced he was leaving the show due to hosting his new talk show Piers Morgan Tonight in the United States and he was unable to do both. In December 2010, Simon Cowell confirmed that he would only be present at the live shows as he would be busy in the U.S. launching the American X Factor. Therefore, comedian Michael Mcintyre and former America's Got Talent judge David Hasselhoff were added to the panel with Amanda Holden. There were also guest judges planned for the auditions due to the success of the guest judges on The X Factor, but no guest judges appeared during the auditions. Hasselhoff was unable to attend the London auditions, so Louis Walsh took his place.

Auditions

Auditions took place in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, and Birmingham. Liverpool also hosted auditions for the first time. The auditions started in London between 4 and 6 January and continued on 13 and 14 January in Manchester and 18 January in Glasgow. Auditions also took place on 21 January in Liverpool, 25 and 26 January in Cardiff and 31 January in Birmingham. During the Liverpool auditions, Michael McIntyre won an award in The British Comedy Awards for Best Male Comic. He received the award in a live video message. During the Cardiff auditions, Ant & Dec won an award in the National Television Awards for "Most Popular Entertainment Presenters". They gave their winning speech in a live video message and asked Simon Cowell to collect their award. In March, Cowell stated that he wanted extra auditions as he thought that the current judges had failed to find the next Paul Potts or Susan Boyle. Cowell was keen to cast the show's nets even further and trawl through thousands of online videos on YouTube in the hope of discovering talent. An insider told the Daily Star: "Cowell's announcement is going to turn the show on its head." Studio auditions for the successful YouTube acts were held on 3 April in Birmingham.

Episode 1 was broadcast on 16 April. Auditions started off in Liverpool and Birmingham. Episode 2 showcased Manchester, Glasgow and a YouTube audition. Episode 3 featured London auditions. More Manchester auditions were shown during Episode 4 along with Cardiff and Birmingham auditions. More Manchester auditions were broadcast during Episode 5, along with more Liverpool and Glasgow auditions. Episode 6 featured more Cardiff, Manchester and London auditions. Episode 7 was due to be broadcast on 28 May but was pushed back to 29 May due to the Champions League Final being played on that day (the 28th). Episode 7 showcased acts from all the cities where the auditions were held. It also featured the judges making decisions on who to send through to the semi finals.

Semi-finals

For the first time ever on Britain's Got Talent, some of the acts were asked to perform again as the judges were having difficulty coming to a final decision on who to send through to the semi-finals. However, Lorna Bliss originally didn't get through, but she was called back by David Hasselhoff.

The live shows started on Monday 30 May. Simon Cowell joined the panel along with Hasselhoff, Holden and McIntyre. The live shows had a £1 million revamp. Holden and the cast of Shrek the Musical performed on Tuesday's results show, whilst Avril Lavigne appeared on Wednesday's results show, Jessie J on Thursday's semi-final, and JLS and Diversity on Friday.

The rules relating to judges' votes in the results show changed from previous series. In the past, the decision as to which act was sent through to the finals was made by the three judges (from which there would always be a majority). With four judges, if there was a two-way tie the act with the second highest number of votes from the public would be sent through to the finals, otherwise the judges' decision would stand.

Semi-finalists

Semi-finals summary

The "Order" columns list the order of appearance each act made for every episode.

Semi-final 1 (30 May)

The judges reached a 2-2 split. The earlier public vote was deferred to and it was announced that Gbegbaje had the second highest number of votes from the public, so went through to the final.

Guest performer: Spelbound

Semi-final 2 (31 May)

Guest performer: Amanda Holden and the cast of Shrek the Musical - "I'm a Believer"

Semi-final 3 (1 June)

Guest performer: Avril Lavigne - "What the Hell"/"Smile"

It was announced by Simon Cowell that a twist would be revealed during Thursday's live semi-final.

Semi-final 4 (2 June)

Guest performer: Jessie J - "Mamma Knows Best"

Semi-final 5 (3 June)

Guest performer: JLS and Diversity - "Eyes Wide Shut"/"Everybody in Love"

1. ^ – It was announced by Simon Cowell on the results show for semi-final 4 that due to the high standard of Moral's performance, he was being invited back to take part in the fifth live semi-final.
2. ^ - In Antonio Popeye's performance, Jedward were used as backing dancers/singers.
3. ^ - Antonio Popeye became the first semi-finalist that all the judges buzzed in this series.

Final (4 June)

The live final was held on Saturday 4th June. Each of the ten acts performed in front of the judges and vying for the public vote. Jackie Evancho and Nicole Scherzinger performed on Saturday's final. Evancho performed on the main show whereas Scherzinger performed on the results show.

The results were revealed one by one from tenth place up to fourth place. This left the top three from whom, Ant and Dec revealed the third place finisher. This left the two with the highest public vote and the final result was then revealed. The winner (Jai McDowall) was then invited to sing again before being joined by family and friends on-stage to celebrate the victory.

Guest performers: Jackie Evancho - "Nessun dorma" and Nicole Scherzinger - "Right There"

Reception

Ratings

Controversy

During the semi-finals, a blog, claimed to be by an executive at Syco, said that the show was fixed for Ronan Parke to win, that Syco had been grooming him for two years and that he had already been signed to the record label. Parke's mother dismissed the claims as "laughable". Cowell reportedly called in police to investigate so the blogger could be tracked down, and police confirmed: "An allegation of malicious communications was made to Kensington and Chelsea police. The allegation is being considered." Syco released a statement saying, "There has been speculation on the internet that Britain's Got Talent finalist Ronan Parke was known to and worked with Syco/Sony Music before entering the show. There is no truth in this story whatsoever. Ronan first came to Syco/Sony's attention when he entered this year's competition."

References

External links

Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain%27s_Got_Talent_(series_5)