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| Britain's Got Talent final expected to get year's highest viewing figures | Britain's Got Talent final expected to get year's highest viewing figures |
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| It is likely to be the biggest rated TV show of the year, but there may be something missing from the live final of ITV's Britain's Got Talent on Saturday – a British winner. | It is likely to be the biggest rated TV show of the year, but there may be something missing from the live final of ITV's Britain's Got Talent on Saturday – a British winner. |
| Audiences have increased for Simon Cowell's talent show, with the final expected to be watched by up to 15 million viewers. But it has also prompted controversy with its inclusion of so many child stars, with half of this year's finallists aged 14 or under. | Audiences have increased for Simon Cowell's talent show, with the final expected to be watched by up to 15 million viewers. But it has also prompted controversy with its inclusion of so many child stars, with half of this year's finallists aged 14 or under. |
| A nine-strong theatre act is the odds-on favourite ; Attraction, a group of shadow dancers from Hungary, reduced the judges to tears with a performance played out to Emeli Sandé's Read All About It – a performance watched by nearly 19 million people on YouTube. | |
| Their status as favourites – Attraction account for 90% of all bets placed with Ladbrokes – suggests Britain might not have quite so much talent after all. | |
| Homegrown hopes are best represented by 14-year-old comic Jack Carroll from Halifax in Yorkshire. Carroll, who has cerebral palsy, was dubbed as the "next Peter Kay" by judge David Walliams. | Homegrown hopes are best represented by 14-year-old comic Jack Carroll from Halifax in Yorkshire. Carroll, who has cerebral palsy, was dubbed as the "next Peter Kay" by judge David Walliams. |
| The seventh series has been a return to form for Cowell after a 2012 to forget (though he's still worth £250m, so it's all relative) with a lacklustre X Factor and ITV cookery flop, Food Glorious Food. It could not be better timed for the TV and music mogul, who is negotiating a new deal with ITV. His current three-year contract – worth a reported £20m – ends this year. | |
| This year's finallists include a dance troupe of five to eight-year-olds from south Wales called Pre Skool. | |
| Bruce Forsyth, a former child star himself, suggested the pressure put on the young contestants in a primetime show offering a prize of £250,000 could do them "emotional damage". His criticism came against the background of an investigation by Ofcom into the treatment of under-18s on television, with the media regulator due to carry out "spot checks" on shows and meet broadcasters in the summer. The Ofcom initiative came after a child on CBBC's Dick and Dom's Hoopla was shown retching after an eating contest, and I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! contestant Charlie Brooks was offered the chance to see her daughter as a prize. | |
| Cowell said: "If you've got a really pushy mum and dad and the kid's miserable, we would never put these people through. | |
| "You take every single person as an individual and you have to make your mind up whether they can handle the stress … The last thing you want is for anyone to look at this experience as a horrible time. I don't think it is," he said in an interview with Radio 2 on Friday. | "You take every single person as an individual and you have to make your mind up whether they can handle the stress … The last thing you want is for anyone to look at this experience as a horrible time. I don't think it is," he said in an interview with Radio 2 on Friday. |
| "Using [Pre Skool] as an example, they are the most fun bunch of kids I have ever met in my life, they have a great time. In this day and age where you've got YouTube and all these other things, they are all going to go on YouTube and try and get noticed; you can't stop this." | "Using [Pre Skool] as an example, they are the most fun bunch of kids I have ever met in my life, they have a great time. In this day and age where you've got YouTube and all these other things, they are all going to go on YouTube and try and get noticed; you can't stop this." |
| This series of Britain's Got Talent has had no repeat of the incident four years ago when a 10-year-old contestant, Hollie Steel, broke down in tears. Ironically, one of the complaints handled by Ofcom in the current run was Cowell's joke, in a reference to the controversy about child contestants, that Pre Skool were "all 45-year-old midgets". | |
| Boyd Hilton, TV editor of Heat magazine, puts the success of the current run, which convincingly saw off its BBC1 Saturday night rival The Voice, down to former Little Britain star Walliams, who joined as a judge two years ago. | |
| "David Walliams is naturally funny, after pretty much every act you see. A lot of that is bouncing off Simon, who is happy to laugh about his jokes about his alleged plastic surgery, outfits and sexuality," said Hilton. | "David Walliams is naturally funny, after pretty much every act you see. A lot of that is bouncing off Simon, who is happy to laugh about his jokes about his alleged plastic surgery, outfits and sexuality," said Hilton. |
| "The final will be the most watched show of the year, without a doubt. People who think talent shows are dying have been truly disproven by its success." | "The final will be the most watched show of the year, without a doubt. People who think talent shows are dying have been truly disproven by its success." |
| Amelia Brown, executive producer of the show which is made by Thames and Cowell's company Syco, said the aim of the current series was to have "as much fun as possible", harping back to erstwhile Saturday night crowd pleasers like Noel Edmonds' House Party on BBC1. | Amelia Brown, executive producer of the show which is made by Thames and Cowell's company Syco, said the aim of the current series was to have "as much fun as possible", harping back to erstwhile Saturday night crowd pleasers like Noel Edmonds' House Party on BBC1. |
| "It sounds cheesy but we like the Saturday night TV we used to watch - the warm and honest, fun television, like Noel's House Party and Challenge Anneka, and feel good afterwards," she said. | "It sounds cheesy but we like the Saturday night TV we used to watch - the warm and honest, fun television, like Noel's House Party and Challenge Anneka, and feel good afterwards," she said. |
| With The X Factor due to return in the autumn, Cowell has previously said that he would put a "pretty good bet" on it not being the last series of Britain's Got Talent. | With The X Factor due to return in the autumn, Cowell has previously said that he would put a "pretty good bet" on it not being the last series of Britain's Got Talent. |
| But with a Hungarian theatre group the favourite, and other contestants having appeared on the likes of ITV's Pride of Britain Awards (Carroll) and BBC1's The Voice, it suggests the well of talent is running low. | |
| Britain's Got Talent is on its seventh series; The X Factor , which is to see the return of Sharon Osbourne as a judge,is on its 10th. Changing the judges is one thing, finding the talent to follow in the footsteps of Susan Boyle and One Direction, quite another. | Britain's Got Talent is on its seventh series; The X Factor , which is to see the return of Sharon Osbourne as a judge,is on its 10th. Changing the judges is one thing, finding the talent to follow in the footsteps of Susan Boyle and One Direction, quite another. |