there has to be some decent acts still in britain.....we didnt just have subo, we had paul potts. diversity, and fun acts like slavio flatley,cheeky monkeys, david crowe.......the amazing football guy jeremy lynch, the guy with the baton that should have been a majorette lol........ craig harper(best ever boyzone impressions) ...george simpson dancing to singing in the rain...the asian dance act (the guy with the turban and broom and whacko jacko lookalike) to name just some of my favorite acts........remember the magician who was so good in the audition and ridiculously bad in round two?.....
its the producers that have it wrong this year.......they love showing rubbish thinking we love it and that the final "big" act looks better after 10 shite ones.....
Britain has got talent, it just cant be seen on this show.

I think another factor is that the format has been going for too long and is being done to death. You see some auditions in front of 3-4 people sitting behind a desk, you get to vote, you get a winner. It's the same on this, X-Factor, American Idol, the various Graham Norton musical star search shows. The first show after it really came back with a bang, the original Pop Idol which Will Young won was in 2001. So it's been solid for ten years. The whole thing is looking very stale now.

I think a lot of people are also getting fed up with the obvious attention seekers that know what they are doing is crap but know it might get them on TV anyway and the stories why the contestants are doing it.

Plus the prize on this show is crap and hard to care about whether any of them win it or not. When you compare the prize of this wath America's Got Talent it's pathetic.

I agree the prizes are pathetic......... but taking an educated guess I doubt Susan Boyle or Paul Potts will ever be short a few quid again

True. It's good for singers, but other than that it's not much cop. George Sampson has got some work and career out of it as have Diversity, well Ashley has. But what about last year's winners? How often do you see them on TV? Have you ever seen them as touring like Diversity does?

It would be hard with flippy floppy or whatever last years winners were called, but couldn't they give the winners their own series or even an one off show plus the Royal Variety Performance?
The ropey impressionist who can onl do Harry Hill got his own show around Christmas time and he didn't even win the thing. I'm not even sure he made the final show.

I think people would rather this show got axed and they just brought back an standard variety show. I'm of an age that remembers that the BBC used to have an show called Seaside Special. Something like that would do.

Walsh puzzled by 'BGT' contestants

Louis Walsh stepped in to take the place of David Hasselhoff as guest judge in this week's episode of Britain's Got Talent and was left more than a little confused by some of the acts.

Walsh joined the judging panel on the ITV1 show as it came to London searching for a new star.

First up for viewers on Saturday is seven-year-old Olivia who read the judges a poem with a difference - she had a 6ft snake called Lucy wrapped around her neck while she recited it.

She was followed by a trio of martial arts-meets-Bollywood dancers and 50-year-old Anthony who mixes his love of art with taking his trousers off - sending the judges hurrying to their buzzers before he can get too far.

However, it was the Star Wars and Michael Jackson act that left Louis the most puzzled.

He tells the other judges: "I didn't get it at all. I don't see the point of the act. Didn't get it at all. I just don't get it. I just don't see anything interesting in the act, I just don't get it. Is it just me?"


Britain's Got Talent is on ITV1 at 8pm on Saturday April 30




welcome to my world Louis....cause I don't get it either

Yes I remember Seaside Special-loved it as a kid. However back then there were an army of well known family acts to populate the shows. These days variety as it was then has disappeared, its now adult comedians, silly game shows and reality/talent shows. BGT asks the public to replace variety but obviously most of them havent had twenty years honing their acts.

I have to disagree with you Chris. There are plenty of acts that are out there but they aren't getting the chance to be on TV. You can have a really good juggler turn up to audition for this show and he won't get any screen time because they have put on some idiot that makes his eyeballs stick out. There are plenty of acts doing the summer seasons and holiday camps. Yes some are ropey but some are ok. Unless they get out on TV they will never be "well known" family acts. There are enough well known acts out there that they could fill half the show with them and half with unknowns. Even the people that do push it a bit can easily be used and told to tone to down.

If you just think of singers alone after 10 years of these kind of shows finding singers there are enough singers from this lot alone. Let's think first show.

1) Helena Blackman (runner up in search for Maria)
2) Paul Burling ( I think his name was) impressionist from last years BGT
3) Paul Zerdin - Ventriloquist at least 20 years experience
4) A male or female singer from clubs/ holiday camps getting first break on TV
5) Jason Manford - comedian
6) JLS (top of the bill and flogging their single)

Tonight's episode isn't looking very good at all as far as talent's concerned. Can't believe that guitar player got through. Unbelievable!

You have certainly kept more notes than me.

I still think that if you put all of those people on a primetime show and called it variety it would not do well. One because the audience would have forgotten half of them and two because they cant vote for them.

According to today's mail, simon cowell is going to replace the hoff with Louis Walsh next season as a result of the large drop in viewers.
Is Simon asleep?
It's not the judges that are the problem.

Thought when Piers left they wouldnt put through any old rubbish just to annoy Simon. Looks like they are still doing it. Must be more talent in britain than this

This stuff makes me laugh from the press, anyone would think the show was only getting 5 million viewers or something!

Last night's show got 9.5 million, still huge amounts of viewers. Down on last year's equivilent? Sure, but hardly a worryingly huge drop.

For referene, the next three audition shows last year got 9.7, 9.4 and 9.7 respectively, so that 9.5 million figure sits pretty much inline year on year.

Last year's sieres average was 10m, this year's so far is 9.8m, so slight decline but certain;y not a "large drop" by any account

I agree.

Last year, I was an avid viewer of the show, I'd watch it on time without fail, followed straight by more talent and then I'd be youtubing my favourite acts for hours after.

This year, I watched the first bgt and bgmt, wasn't that impressed; not enough talent, not that many amusing acts.
This week, I was 20 minutes late to switching on and didn't even watch to the end, never mind watching more talent.

Really disappointed. Would not be surprised if this was the last series of the show.