Britain’s Got Talent smashes ratings as it returns to ITV for new series

The biggest talent show in the UK returned for its seventeenth series on Saturday 20 April and brought in millions of viewers.

The first episode of Britain’s Got Talent saw impressionists, talented dogs, and cheerleading squad perform – as well as two Golden Buzzer acts. As a result, 5.8 million viewers switched on to watch a very talented group of acts take to the stage on ITV1 making it the channel’s biggest overnight audience of the year so far since The FA Cup quarter final match last month which had 5.5 million viewers.

The overall statistics of the show are even more impressive with the show garnering 55 million viewers and 143 of its episodes have exceeded 10 million viewers each.



All four judges returned to Britain's Got Talent for series 17
All four judges returned to Britain’s Got Talent for series 17

Judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli all returned for the glittering new series and have teased lots of twists to come – including the fact that the panel used nine Golden Buzzers between them, rather than just the usual one.

Amanda will put through two acts with the Golden Buzzer, including singer Sydnie Christmas whose audition aired in episode one. However, she has been met with criticism after viewers discovered she has previously starred in Starlight Express.



Sydnie Christmas was the first Golden Buzzer of the series
Sydnie Christmas was the first Golden Buzzer of the series

Hosts Ant and Dec also pressed the Golden Buzzer in episode one for the group Ssaulabi, a taekwondo act who flew all the way from South Korea. In a chat with OK! magazine, Bruno revealed he actually broke the Golden Buzzer while filming.

“Typical!” he laughed. “I didn’t even know I was that strong! There was someone on stage who was so moving, very inspiring. The type of person who wants to be good so badly, they put so much into it and have so much passion. I just whacked it.

“It had never happened before so they didn’t have a replacement for the buzzer. They had to fix it with Scotch Tape – it looked a mess. I thought, ‘Let’s start with a bang’, and we definitely did get a bang!”



Britain’s Got Talent smashes ratings as it returns to ITV for new series
Lucy Heath and her dogs flew through to the next round

The episode opened with an AI act, but one woman that shocked everyone was Kimberley Winter. As she took to the stage, no one expected her to begin burping. While Bruno and Alesha were disgusted, Amanda and Simon happily joined in.

Simon decided to put Kimberly through stating the act would be his ‘son’s favourite’.

Britain’s Got Talent continues on Saturday 27 April at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX

View news Source: https://www.ok.co.uk/tv/britains-talent-smashes-ratings-returns-32637097

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