It seems that britains got talent is down by over 1 million viewers, and is getting rubbished by the press and viewers alike, with most blaming the abscence of Mr Simon Cowell. However, last season there were many people posting that they wanted rid of him.
I think these forums have it right, the show has passed its peak (remember who wants to be a millionaire hysteria) and producers are showing too many crap auditions,
If the show is about talent... Show it to the viewers,
We all enjoy a laugh, and seeing the occasional deluded performer, just not all the time.

This is not the reason.


This is the reason.

Yes, the same tired old formula of showing us one or two half decent acts (and I struggle to even call them that) heavily outnumbered by a load of supposedly hilarious dross did nothing to entertain me.

I'm actually glad Cowell isn't there looking as bored as I feel. I just watched it for Michael McIntyre, and wasn't disappointed in that regard.

Simon Cowell was a massive part of that show. The replacement judges are poor substitutes.

its had its day. I watched 5 minutes and had to turn it off. It was dreadful.

As shown in a previous thread, it was not down by 1 million viewers, it was down on last years opening show by just 200,000 viewers, which makes it 2nd in 1st show viewer figures, but saying that if the rest of the auditions are as bad as this 1st episode i think the viewing figures will fall through the floor

We managed nearly half an hour before turning it off. It just went from bad to truly dreadful.

Matthew Wright refers to the show as "Britain Exploits the Mentally Challenged" - a bit cruel perhaps, but after what I saw on Saturday he isn't far wrong.

Although to be honest, I think the "mentally challenged" are probably the producers who think showing a load of non-talents will persuade us (viewers) to tune in again ---- if there is talent there, then tempt us with it, so we actually want to watch more. Their mental state might also be questioned when they thought that the Hoff might be a good replacement for Simon, and Michael for Piers. Weird decisions to say the least.

What is the source? The ratings I saw showed the viewership of the first show as averaged over the course of the programme was down 700,000 from the comparable figure for last year's opener.

I watched about 30 seconds. Awful and unwatchable. Best to stay updated through this site, You Tube and ITV player. I reckon I can get a 90 min programme down to about 3 mins.

I'm not anticipating watching anymore BGT this year. It's less to do with the judges (although Hasselhoff is diabolical) and more to do with having seen all the acts before. It's had its day.

It is not Simon Cowell. But no doubt Simon will come back and say "oh well when I was gone the press rubbished the show so im coming back" which gives him the perfect excuse to make his return.

All this nonsense about "simon telling it how it is"...im sorry thats just a boring cliche of his now. It was true like 6 years ago when he was still fresh on TV but it doesent apply anymore. Simon is as boring as the rest of them and even more false.

Exactly. When those dogs came on and they all went crazy i was like "what?" THat dog doing tricks act got old about 3 years ago.

Either an exaggeration or you made your mind up before the show even began. No matter what show is it, you can't know if it's "awful and unwatchable" by viewing half a minute of a one hour show.

I think a few more series of the show and then the phrase "flogging a dead horse" will come to mind i think the new panel has given it a sort of new feel but the talent could be burnt out sooner rather than later!

That's it in a nutshell: They have got the balance completely wrong.

At the moment it's a long show that is about 95% rubbish acts and 5% (if lucky) of talent. (And then the level of actual talent is debatable)

What is needed is at least 70% talent and 30% entertainment factor only acts.

Do that and they can revive the show and even have a winner on their hands. But they won't! They are as deaf as the Big Brother producers with their "we know better than our viewers" attitude that they had right until the last fadeout forever on Channel 4.

the judges havent changed the show. weve only seen the first show so lets give it a chance. there is a lack of talent so far and these auditions are starting to get boring now. I think if they did the first week a few hours on saturday and sunday getting the auditions over with they could go straight to the live shows with a few more acts theres that ITV2 show that could show all the faliures for those who want to watch

They could change the name to..
Britains not got talent

Or even : Britain, gross and talentless..........

I imagine once they get through all the auditions, the show will perk up quite a bit, showcasing the acts that really DO have talent.

So...have patience.

Or in fact anything factural as it stands at the moment "Britain's Got Talent" is not what they producers are looking for or putting through based on talent.

The show does seem to attract the same kind of thing which will get very samey, dog acts, daft acts, teary children, dance and gymnastic acts. I guess its how long this type of stuff feels fresh to the people who watch but after five trawls through the British public surely the talent pool is starting to get a bit thin.
The other thing is that the show had its peak moment too early-ie Susan Boyle. That happened in such a way as to make it virtually impossible to replicate and create the same kind of buzz-people would see through it.

It doesn't help when the producers and judges always put rubbish acts through to the next round and then into the live semi-finals. It gives them false hope and it ridicules them live in front of the whole nation in front of millions of people.

Also, they should stop putting the best act in each semi-final on last, because that's the one that gets remembered the most and it's not really fair on the others. It happens nine times out of ten and it even happened with last year's final.

Every newspaper article I have read has rightly praised Michael McIntyre, calling Simon Cowell no great loss to the show.

Showing it with nearly all boring acts isn't a good way to kick off the show. Unless they're saving the acts with genuine talent for tomorrow night.

The newspapers hailed that lad with the guitar as brilliant! Look how wrong they were. Enough said.