All the acts combined (9 in each show I think,) take about 20 minutes of time in total, and yet the show is 90 minutes long!

WHY???

I have literally been having to record it and watch it later, because of the amount of commercial breaks, waffle, and sob stories.

It is literally 20 minutes of acts and 70 minutes of guff.

In the first semi on Monday, it was one act, then a break! And then another act and then a break!!!

At that point, I just hit the record button, and watched it later.

I have done the same all week. I have got through each 90 minute show in 30 minutes each time, by just watching the acts, and a little bit of what the judges say each time.

How this show is dragged out is preposterous! (X factor is the same!)

Thank Gawd for sky plus and being able to record and watch later!

Have to agree.

Did exactly the same, and allowing for the acts, cutting out all of the puerile back-story and pre-act build ups, but including the Judges' comments up until the phone number banner appeared I reckon it took a tad over 40 minutes.

To be fair even some of that was not worth watching.

The Final starts at 7:30 and finishes at ten so I reckon I can start watching the acts at around 8:30, have a break and still see the finish by 10:00

Hi Allan.

Thanks for your comments.

I am not blowing my own trumpet but I don't think many people would disagree with me; the way it's dragged out and the amount of breaks it has is annoying!

And yes, I agree with you; I will also start recording it at 7.30pm and start watching the recording at 8.30pm, then by about 9.45pm it will have caught up!

Other than the news, I have not watched 'live' television or seen an advert since 2012.
My Tivo box is my best friend.

We record it and start watching after about an hour.

The ad breaks do probably give necessary time for the stage sets to be prepared for the next act, but so many ads get very tedious very fast.

'On Demand' the semi's ran for an hour and 10 minutes with no ads - skipping ads and some of the act intro clips does help make the show far more enjoyable - whether it be On Demand, recording or delay tv.

I always watch it later so I can skip the ads and rubbish, the results show is the worse, first half I don't even bother watching, just watch the 2nd half when the actually announce the results.

It's not too long. What are you on about.

It's on ITV so you have to have ad breaks which takes up time. You can't just have one act on then say "right get off, next". The judges have to say their comments, Ant and Dec have to have a bit of a chat with act after the comments, you've got a bit of VT before the act comes on. All these things are all part of the show. If it wasn't done in this way it would feel rushed. BGT is only on once a year and when the semi finals are on it's the highlight of the evening so ITV are going to stretch it out a bit. If you enjoy watching BGT then the time soon goes. I don't think 90 mins is too long at all

I've been skipping most of the results show too, yeah.

I wonder if the ratings would be better for BGT and Corrie if they just had Corrie on from 7.30pm all week (yes, it would clash with EastEnders on Tues/Thursday) and BGT start at 8pm all the way to the results.

I get fed up of all the VTs with BGT to the point where I just look at my laptop until they're finished.

What's the point in them?

We've all been watching. We know who the acts are.

That why I call it Britains got Adverts with some acts in between

I think Aleksandr Orlov should get the wildcard!

In some cases the adverts are there to allow them to set the stage up for the next act or to clean the stage from the previous act. There are some acts that do not need elaborate staging so the constant adverts are not necessary half the time but it's ITV so they have to fulfil their quota of adverts per 90 minute show.

I do see that they may need an ad break to set up for a certain act, but the amount they have is ludicrous, and it's refreshing to see that people agree that the show is way too long for only 9 two minute acts, and that there is an obscene amount of ads.

I think the Skyplus/Tivo gadget is the best invention since the wheel!

Helps skim through the 65-70 minutes of guff, sob stories, backstory VT, and waffle.

This year there hasnt even been 90 minutes from all the live shows put together worth watching. Gave up after weds, just so bloomin boring! Such a shame as I used to enjoy the show and BGMT a lot too but this year has just been unwatchable...caught 10 seconds of that autist girl singing pie jesu the other night...my god no!

i record, watch it at 9, takes me about 20-25 minutes.

I agree. Way to many ads and way to much fillers. The VTs are the same, lots of sob stories and very manipulated.
Its been a hilarious year but for others reasons. The set up acts like the hypno dog, the dodgy camera work and Simon slamming his own production.

I wish they would stop looking for clones of previous success stories, the judges are somewhat pointless in their roles and singers should be encouraged to apply for XF instead.

Sometimes yo have to wonder if all of the millions spent on adverts, (atcually our money taken from the price of the goods), is really worth it.


Do adverts really influence people to buy the goods or do they actually antagonise folk?

It's all rather bizarre anyway; the meerkats series is probably more entertaining than 90% of BGT for example, well scripted and presented, but clever though they are I for one am not remotely interested in the product and never will be. I hear that those ads are beginning to air in Australia now, so there has to be some commercial reason I suppose.


In terms of BGT,the ads serve one purpose, time to dress the stage for the next act, no more, no less. They are as boring and indeed, almost as irrelevant as the generally puerile work-experience quality VT's.

Ive been in the fantastic position for two years running where I've been performing in an amateur drama show Spring Bank week. Ive been watching the shows pre-recorded the following morning and get through them (show + results) in about 1hr and 15mins roughly. If I was to cut out judges comments etc in would be less but i find them entertaining ha ha

People were recording programmes years before Sky Plus was invented.

Exactly what I have done too record and watch later without the adverts best way!!

2.5hrs tonight, I'll be removing about 30mins of adverts from it. The time should be cut down.

Saved 65 minutes, saw all of the acts and the two Guest acts, the only way to go!

That's the reality of commercial television. Just find it odd that people can't sit through a tv programme for any length. Rather have ad breaks to break it up than the tedium on BBC channels. Try sitting through The Voice for two hours.