I've watched this show a few weeks running, and there's one matter which has been driving me insane to the point of not wanting to watch the show anymore....

The contestants are all assessed on one criteria and one criteria alone - how loud a cheer they get from the live audience. None of the judges have the courage to stand up for their convictions (if it goes against the audience). There have too many instances where a certain act has started and you can see, esp. McIntyre and Holden, flinching from how bad it is and how fatally embarrassing it would be to put them in front of the Queen; yet, as soon as they realise the crowd is cheering the act on and having fun, they'll jump on the bandwagon and start clapping and cheering. And in their 'feedback', they'll always give the same lame excuse of "at first i thought it was bizarre and i was confused, but the crowd clearly loved you and that's what this is about...it's a YES from me".

NO! That's not all this is about. Yes, they will be performing to a live audience at the Royal Variety Show; BUT, the judges should be applying a far more rigorous criteria to simply one that is crowd pleasing...to name a few - a performance that is tasteful, demonstrates talent, is classy and ONE THAT IS SUITABLE FOR THE QUEEN. Probably more that 50% of acts that have been put through do not meet this criteria in a excruciatingly obvious way, and the judges know that, but they're too weak to go against the audience and god forbid be booed (bearing in mind that many of the acts bring along a large group of supporters in the audience).

For all the things i may not like about Simon Cowell, at least he's demonstrated on many occasions that he'll simply give his opinion, however unpopular it may be with the live audience - but which ironically seems to hit the right chords with the millions watching at home. This gives us more respect for him. Whereas i feel like the current judges' inability to give their honest opinions has lost me a lot of respect for them.

The live audience does not represent the views of millions watching at home, or the views of what the Queen and others will be when watching the winner! These are a bunch of, predominantly, teenagers on day out to have fun, have a laugh with their mates and just cheer and chant at any old act that stands out. They're not 'judging' talent, nor necessarily care whatsoever as to how the act will go down with the Queen. They're simply there to have fun, cheer and rant. The judges are there for a different purpose and should fulfill that role! If we wanted to simply measure the volume of the audiences' roar against each act i'm sure we could have installed volume sensory machine which would be far more accurate and cheaper!

The drama with that group of drummers today - where the judges voted NO, and the audience booed them and chanted to 'bring them back', upon which the judges called them back and said 'yes' on the basis that the audience is right and they're wrong, cealed this point for me.

Anyone else notice this?

The mere fact those guys had served in Iraq and Afganistan, they should get a YES. Just by going on this crappy show, they deserve credit. This show is dreadful and the acts have no talent.

But the live audience has always been the fourth judge, and their say is far more representative of the British public than that of three individual judges (one of whom said yes, btw). Even Ant & Dec were shocked, with Ant yelling out to the judges "they're good".

Musicians are typically hit and miss. Either you like them or you don't. Personally I would love to see more musicians on the show but that's a whole other discussion.

The right decision was made in the end. Unfortunately, I doubt the British public will get to vote on them as I can see Holden, McIntyre and even Cowell not putting them through to the live semis. They've all proven they're not fond of drummers.


I was expecting this last night. It would be so very wrong to put the marines through on the basis that a few of them had served in those wars. They had to be judged like anyone else, based on their talent alone. Thankfully, they had oodles of it.

Unbelievable! But i'm glad you said it, because that's exactly why the crowd forced the judges to change their vote and why Ant and Dec annoyingly got involved too. "OMG, they're soldiers, how dare the judges ever say no to them!"

Fair enough, but at least change the title of the show to something else

They are Military bandsmen you dont get to be in a military band by being crap.
frankly the queen would probably prefer to watch these drummers than some girl flipping her baps out or a dog whining because its owner is hurting its ears by wailing down them or some couple ringing hand bells.

The fact that they served in Iraq and Afghanistan should NOT have a bearing on the judges decision. The judges were correct in their analysis when giving reasons for thier no vote and they should not have changed thier minds. There is too much sympathy voting going on in these talent shows already with sob stories and 'cute' talentless children going through. For me last nights decision ruined all credibility of BGT for me.

They were always going to go through.

Just showmanship imo. For dramatic effect.

Yep. 'Fraid so.

And because they were f#cking awesome?

Goodness me, don't you know a set up when you see it?!!

It's the same as Amanda Holden stopping someone singing (two weeks in a row?) and saying 'Do you have another song?' and, surprise, surprise they do!!

It was a set up. It's supposed to make the show more exciting. Perhaps it does, if you don't realise it's been set up like that.

They shouldn't have gone through just for being soldiers, they were tedious, they could have done something different to what they do, day in day out.

Put it like this, they weren't exactly the Blue Man Group who are a million times better.

No. They shouldn't automatically get a yes because they're soldiers. This makes a mockery of the title of the show. Anyway, it was blatantly obvious that the audience were just running on emotion due to them being soldiers.

If it was a set up the whole audience would have had to have been in on it, which seems unlikely. I agree that a lot of the 'drama' you see on these shows is a set up, particularly those between the judges, but i believe this particular incidence was nothing more than proof that the judges are completely weak and will bow down to whatever demands the audience our chanting ("bring them back, bring them back"). What i find most fustrating is that the audeince only got behind them because they were soldiers.

Most (singing) acts are probably told to prepare at least two songs in case requested by the judge, so i wouldn't have thought Amanda asking bands to sing another song is a set up.

Ridiculous.

This was 100% a set up to get the audience riled up - Britain fighting an illegal war, heroic soldiers protecting us from who exactly? they were pretty ok on stage but drumming is kinda boring after 60 seconds, that's why we have the Coldstream Guards bands - numerous instruments. They knew the audience would be peed off, the Ant n Dec stage appearance made it perfect tv. They have no chance of winning though, the senior royals must see a military band every week.

If you saw last night's BGMT, you will have seen something more ridiculous, a very large man came on dancing and singing, he was abysmal by the way, the judges all said no but because of the audience reaction he was bought back on and told that he would go through after all