I wouldn't go as far as seeing he "isn't all there", have you never written a story or a poem or something, and reading it back it to yourself it sounds like a masterpiece, but when you show somebody else it gets shot down? I personally think it's a case of that.

He's had a go at this, presumably had the staff and other performers at BGT telling him it's amazing, and was just completely taken aback at the negative response he received.

It'll be the same tomorrow with that opera singing woman. She wasn't bad in my untrained opinion, but for some reason the crowd hated her. This isn't about talent, it's about building people's dreams and then destroying it in front of their eyes.

It's wrong.

I seriously do not understand how this guy got through to the semi finals in the first place. The only explanation I have was to purely humiliate the guy!! He looked so hurt and angry after Simon's comments tonight

I think he was weird.

Looked like he had a hair piece fitted or had some of that hairspray stuff that makes baldies look like they have hair.

Just a weird fellow

Well, as far as I read it, he was more like a plant in all honesty, just what the show required, someone that Simon could be honest about and the crowd boo his honesty once again. A bit of a set up IMO.

I want to predict that Kay(opera singer) and Harvey will get plenty of boos from the audience.

Why did the judges put him through? He is a deluded odd ball and they knew it. To put him through was so that we would laugh at him I suppose. Well it wasn't funny at all and children up and down the country who play keyboards at school must have been shocked. The man's performance was appaulling only he didn't know it.
Seeing as there were only 40 places I felt angry to see him there. The only talent he had was self delusion.

Im ashamed at Amanda and piers in putting him through.

Agree, that's the bit that annoys me the most. There was no way he should have been picked for the semi-finals and all those really talented acts that missed out on a place just so that they could have someone to raise a few laughs out of must have been gutted.

No-one's forcing him to do it though.

No, nobody is forcing him to do it, but thats not the point is it.

He was obviously short of something; does that give us the right to abuse him?


Lets put it this way; if a busker sat down in your local town square and started playing an instrument badly and a horde of people started jeering and heckling him; it would be disgraceful, it would be abuse.

Also; the crowd could easilly find themselves on assault charges as its not acceptable behaviour by any standard.


But, the bottom line is this - NOBODY, NOBODY on this planet has the right to treat another human being like that for any reason what so ever. No way, no how, no excuse.


I ommit sicko's like paedo's and rapists from being a part of the human race before anyone makes a sarcastic comment.

How is it humiliating if the person really does think they are good no matter what anybody says?

You could tell these guys they will fail but they will continue to try harder. So, instead of seeing that Michael is a determined and head strong guy who will always improve his technique, you believe he was humiliated.

I don't. I think he came there to fight his corner and he did.

Oh sorry, I didn't realise this was contestant death match.




Again; really not the point. He was bad and therefore didn't get a good critique and didn't get votes.


The audience reaction was abuse, and that is unacceptable under any circumstance. Like I said earlier, nobody has the right to treat someone like that.

The fact that he seriously believed in himself makes it worse; if he was there for shits and giggles then it would sway it a little more but he wasn't.

The lady opera singer, will get the same abuse tonight. It's just so wrong. Simon and co. and put these people through, to be humilated on live tv.

They all fight their corner. How does that make it a death match?

What you are saying is that if somebody believes in themselves it is worth.

Let's look at it bit by bit. Can he play a keyboard? Yes, he can. Not very well but he can play it. Does he put in the time? Yes he does. Can he get better? Yes he can.

What you're doing is projecting your own view of humiliation on somebody because you think numerous people putting somebody down is completely wrong. In every walk of life, if you want to get to be very very good you have to realise, there are going to be more people knocking you down than building you up.

These guys are there because they think they are good and there is nothing wrong with thinking you are good even if the world thinks you are not. That's your perspective, but the general perspective here is a fear of achieving.

None of these acts got out of bed one morning and could bodypop, sing perfectly, dance or even get a dog to jump and crawl and walk backwards. It took hours and hours of work and the effort is there to be seen.

I appreciated this guy. You're just overly focussing on the boos and the criticism which is valid but if this guy said that he could do it then you have to give him credit and he represents keyboard players. A shame he does but somebody like Teresa would have gone through.

Now the next point you miss. This is a TV show where talented people go through and some people are given a chance on personal determination and people like this guy are that who believe they have achieved and are building on their talent. No he is not the best but he could just get there one day but people supporting the booing crowd (which is part of anybody's development in a craft as motivation as motivation is the key drive behind all things) is like supporting a wind and blaming it when it's going to come and blow up your house. It works against the aims of achieving things if you want the house to stand up.

I felt really sorry for the guy when he said in the show before that he had been practising for 5 hours a day for the past couple of weeks.

For him to be working so hard and putting that much effort into it just makes it seem worse to me.
For him to practising for 5 hours a day he must truly be under the belief that if he works really hard it's going to help him.

They've just been instilling a false sense of security into him which is going to hurt all the more when he's rejected, and I don't think it was right to put him through just for him to be laughed at.

But that's telly for you, if it gets the ratings then that's all the justification they need. If people watch it it's showing that they find it acceptable.

I think many people like to think of themselves as good, caring people, but I think that the bottom line is that if they find it entertaining to see the humiliation of people on TV then they'll manage to find a way to square it with themselves and justify it to themselves, for example shrug it off by saying something like 'He knew what he was letting himself in for' or something like that.

I think that if some people are honest with themselves sometimes they see something on TV and get that uncomfortable feeling that something just doesn't feel right about it at all.
To see the way some people on TV are mocked and jeered by a mass of people sometimes comes across as quite chilling to me, because it's almost like viewing a little insight into what people can really be like underneath in the right conditions.

Like I say, if it gets the ratings then it's justified.

You hit the nail on the head.

He was led to believe that he was better than he was which made the audience reaction even more crushing.

Firstly, the performer in question was led to believe he was good. His hopes were built up by two of the judges and then dashed.

Secondly, no-one is suggesting the audience should not be allowed to boo. But the negative reaction to this man last night was relentless. Each time Ant n Dec mentioned his name there were boos and hisses and cheers and chants from the crowd. That's not on.

I think he can improve given the time but he has a lot of realising to be done.

First of all he needs to learn a bit more about music and that means going beyond the keyboard he has and not using the rumba beat. - but it will come in time. Give him a chance.

Should he have been on the show? I think yes. I don't think the whole thing will get to him too much. I think the people feel sorry for him and I think this is what the producers wanted. People to feel sorry for him.

ok

Do you think it could be orchestrated to look worse to make the public have sympathy for him?

Do you think he can improve?

Do you think it's good what he has achieved?

Do you think he will stop playing the keyboard?

My answers are - Yes - Yes - Yes and No.

I couldn't care a less about the answers to those questions. They have no bearing on how the audience behaved last night.

They could have booed after his performance and left it at that. It would have got the message across that they deemed him talentless (which he was). But their reaction was incessant. A whole room of people ganging up on one individual like that is bullying in my eyes.

Personally I think the producers are more likely to want us to reflect how the studio audience are reacting.
I think that's the idea behind priming the audience beforehand, so that they transmit emotions across to the viewers and we are supposed to feel these same extremes of emotion.

It could be the other way around. If you think about it, this has been an ongoing formula and there have always been people who feel sorry for the contestant. So they must be aware of this.

I wouldn't say arrogant - if you were confronted with an audience full of people booing you from the moment your name was announced, and judges slating you for doing EXACTLY what they always knew you'd be doing, I think you have a right to fight his corner.

I thought it was pretty shameful television - bringing a guy on just to humiliate him is really low. He seemed a perfectly good (if deluded) guy, he didn't deserve such treatment. The people booing should be ashamed of themselves.

They build them up just to knock them down all in the name of entertainment.

Only this time they went a step too far.