Britain's Got Talent (series 1)

Britain's Got Talent
Series 1
Broadcast from 9 June – 17 June 2007
Judges Simon Cowell
Amanda Holden
Piers Morgan
Presenter(s) Anthony McPartlin (ITV)
Declan Donnelly (ITV)
Co-presenter(s) Stephen Mulhern (ITV2)
Broadcaster ITV
ITV2 (BGMT)
Winner
Paul Potts
Origin Port Talbot, Wales
Song "Turandot"
Genre(s) Classical, operatic pop

Series One of Britain's Got Talent, a British talent competition series, began broadcasting in the UK during 2007, from 9 June to 17 June on ITV. The success of America's Got Talent helped to revive production of a British version of the show, after initial development for the programme was suspended when its originally planned host, Paul O'Grady, became involved in an argument with ITV and later defected to another channel. The judges chosen for the series were Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell; both Morgan and Cowell had been original choices during the original plans for the programme before O'Grady's departure. The hosts selected for the series were Ant & Dec, while a spin-off show on ITV2, entitled Britain's Got More Talent would be hosted by Stephen Mulhern.

The first series was won by opera singer Paul Potts. During its broadcast, the series averaged around 8.4 million viewers.[1]

Series overview

When production on the show resumed, Morgan was brought in as a judge, having been an original choice during the show's initial conception.

After Simon Cowell pitched to ITV his plans for a televised talent competition, production was green-lighted for a full series after a pilot episode was created in mid-2005. A dispute between Paul O'Grady, the original choice as host for the programme, and the broadcaster, led to filming being suspended, with production not resuming until after the success of the first series of America's Got Talent. When it did resume, production staff focused on a schedule of ten episodes to begin with for the first series of Britain's Got Talent, with major auditions for potential acts held within the cities of Manchester, Birmingham, London and Cardiff. The initial choices for judges changed to begin with following O'Grady's decision to switch broadcasters, with it eventually finalised on Cowell, Piers Morgan, and Amanda Holden.

Of the participants who auditioned to be in the contest for this series, only 24 made it into the three live semi-finals, with eight appearing in each one, and six of these acts moving on into the live final. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this series:

  Winner
  Finalist
  Semi-finalist (lost Judges' vote)
  Semi-finalist (eliminated)
Participant Genre Act Semi-final Result
Bessie Cursons Music Musical Theatre Performer 2 Finalist (Won public vote)
Caroline Boyes Dance Dancer 1 Eliminated
Cheeky Bits Dance Dance Group 3 Eliminated
Connie Talbot Singing Singer 3 Finalist (Won public vote)
Craig Womersley Variety Baton Twirler 2 Eliminated (Lost Judges' vote)
Crazeehorse Acrobatics Acrobatic Duo 2 Eliminated
Crew 82 Music Beat Boxing Group 3 Eliminated
Damon Scott Comedy Comedy Puppeteer 1 Finalist (Won Judges' vote)
Doctor Gore Magic Magician 3 Eliminated
Dominic Smith Singer Singer 1 Eliminated (Lost Judges' vote)
Jack Reeve Dance Tap Dancer 2 Eliminated
Jake Pratt Singing/Comedy Singer and Comedian 2 Eliminated
Kombat Breakers Dance Dance Group 2 Finalist (Won Judges' vote)
Luke & Charlotte Dance Ballroom Dancers 1 Eliminated
MD Productions Dance Dance Group 1 Eliminated
Mel's Klever K9’S Animal/Dance Line Dancing Dog Act 1 Eliminated
Mike Garbutt Comedy Impressionist 3 Eliminated
Paul Potts Singing Opera Singer 1 Winner
Scott Holtom Dance Dancer 3 Eliminated
The Bar Wizards Juggling Jugglers 3 Finalist (Won Public vote)
The Free Runners Acrobatics Acrobatic Group 1 Eliminated
The Mini-Mezzos Dance Dance Group 2 Eliminated
Tony Laf Singing Singer 3 Eliminated (Lost Judges' vote)
Victoria Armstrong Variety Angle Grinder 2 Eliminated


Semi-final summary

Buzzed out
Judges' vote
  Won the public vote |   Won the judges' vote
  Lost the judges' vote |   Eliminated

Semi-final 1 (14 June)

Semi-Finalist Order Act Buzzes and judges' votes Result
Cowell Holden Morgan
MD Productions 1 Dance Group Eliminated
Damon Scott 2 Comedy Puppeteer 2nd (Won Judges' vote)
Mel's Klever K9’S 3 Line Dancing Dog Act Eliminated
Dominic Smith 4 Singer 3rd (Lost Judges' vote)
Luke & Charlotte 5 Ballroom Dancers Eliminated
Caroline Boyes 6 Dancer Eliminated
The Free Runners 7 Acrobatic Group Eliminated
Paul Potts 8 Opera singer 1st (Won Public vote)

Semi-final 2 (15 June)

Semi-Finalist Order Act Buzzes and judges' votes Result
Cowell Holden Morgan
Kombat Breakers 1 Dance Group 2nd (Won Judges' vote)
Victoria Armstrong 2 Angle Grinder Eliminated
Jack Reeve 3 Tap Dancer 1 Eliminated
Jake Pratt 4 Singer And Comedian Eliminated
The Mini-Mezzos 5 Dance Group Eliminated
Crazeehorse 6 Acrobatic Duo Eliminated
Craig Womersley 7 Baton Twirler 3rd (Lost Judges' vote)
Bessie Cursons 8 Musical Theatre Performer 1st (Won Public vote)
  • ^1 Cowell pressed Holden's buzzer.

Semi-final 3 (16 June)

Semi-Finalist Order Act Buzzes and judges' votes Result
Cowell Holden Morgan
Cheeky Bits 1 Dance Group Eliminated
Mike Garbutt 2 Impressionist Eliminated
Doctor Gore 3 Magician Eliminated
Tony Laf 4 Singer 3rd (Lost Judges' vote)
Scott Holtom 5 Dancer Eliminated
Crew 82 6 Beat Boxing Group Eliminated
The Bar Wizards 7 Jugglers 2nd (Won Judges' vote)
Connie Talbot 8 Singer 1st (Won Public vote)

Final (17 June)

Finalist Order Act Finished
Kombat Breakers 1 Dance Group Undeclared
Damon Scott 2 Comedy Puppeteer Undeclared
Bessie Cursons 3 Musical Theatre Performer Undeclared
The Bar Wizards 4 Jugglers Undeclared
Connie Talbot 5 Singer Undeclared
Paul Potts 6 Opera Singer 1st

Ratings

Episode Date Official ratings
(millions)[2]		 Weekly rank[2] Share
Auditions 1 9 June 5.20 12 22.7%[3]
Auditions 2 10 June 6.73 8 28.0%[4]
Auditions 3 11 June 7.28 15 29.4%[5]
Auditions 4 12 June 7.39 13 29.3%[6]
Auditions 5 13 June 7.51 11 29.2%[7]
Semi-final 1 14 June 8.36 9 34.0%[8]
Semi-final 2 15 June 9.28 8 38.1%[9]
Semi-final 3 16 June 9.29 7 40.9%[9]
Live final 17 June 11.58 1 43.7%[1]
Live final results 17 June 11.45 2 44.7%[1]

Criticism & controversies

Unsuitable participants

During the initial broadcast of this series, two of the participants - Richard Bates, and the Kit Kat Dolls - were removed from the programme, after the producers discovered that each had either withheld or failed to disclose information that would have made them ineligible to be a part of Britain's Got Talent. These fact only came to light when, in each case, an outside source contacted the producers with the relevant information. In Bates' case, his removal was the result of a request made by Lancashire Police. The producers learnt that he hadn't disclosed that he had been placed on the UK's Violent and Sex Offender Register (at that time) for an offence he had committed in 2005. Lancashire Police request was accepted based upon concerns over the possibility of either the offence's victim, or the victim's family, being unsettled by Bates' appearance on television.[10][11]

In comparison, the removal of the Kit Kat Dolls was done under the instructions of ITV. Unbeknown to the broadcaster, or the producers, three of the members from the act were secretly working as prostitutes, which was later considered a serious breach of trust. This information was later brought to light through an undercover investigation conducted by the News of the World, who contacted ITV with their findings. The group were promptly disqualified as a direct result, per Section 24 of the programme's terms and conditions regarding application forms:[12]

"The Producer reserves the right to disqualify you if you have supplied untruthful, inaccurate or misleading personal details and/or information, have failed to abide by the Rules and/or are in breach of the terms hereof."

ITV released a statement later in June 2007, regarding the controversy caused by the act's members:[13]

"We’d like to thank the News of the World for bringing this gross abuse of our trust to our attention. We have removed the group from the show. As a consequence of this incident the whole band has had to be punished. We feel let down as do their fellow bandmates."

Unsuitable act for broadcast

Following the live broadcast of the third semi-final, Ofcom received several complaints from viewers in regards to the magical act conducted by magician Doctor Gore. The complaints focused on criticism over his act being unsuitable for the show, due to the gruesome nature of the magic tricks he performed. Although the production team stated in its defence that the performance had been reviewed carefully to ensure it would not be frightening, the regulator ruled that the programme had been in breach of the broadcasting code that concerned the protection of children from unsuitable material.[14][15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 ITV gets 13.5m with 'Talent' Digital Spy, 18 June 2007
  2. 1 2 "Weekly Top 30 Programmes". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  3. ↑ F1 helps ITV win ratings race Digital Spy, 11 June 2007
  4. ↑ BBC 'Dream' pays off Digital Spy, 11 June 2007
  5. ↑ Broadcast Now Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.(subscription required)
  6. ↑ Broadcast Now Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ Broadcast Now Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. 1 2 "Viewing Figures The Authority on Television Viewing > Viewing Figures Home". Viewingfigures.com. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008.
  10. ↑ "Forced out, the Britain's Got Talent act who's also got a sordid secret". Daily Mail. 16 June 2007.
  11. ↑ "Police alert over TV contestant". BBC News. 16 June 2007.
  12. ↑ BGT: Terms and Conditions
  13. ↑ "Britain's Got Talent…For Hire: Kit-Kat Sex". Unrealitytv.co.uk. 17 June 2007. Archived from the original on 25 October 2008.
  14. ↑ "Broadcast Bulletin Issue Number 91". Ofcom.org.uk. Archived from the original on 29 June 2008.
  15. ↑ "Britain's Got Talent rapped over Dr Gore". 20 August 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2007.

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