Britain’s Got Talent is set to return with a brand new line-up of judges for 2023 – a rarity for a show that has kept the same judges for a decade.
With Bruno Tonioli confirmed to replace David Williams and auditions starting, what do we know about this year’s series so far?
When is Britain’s Got Talent back on TV?
The new series of Britain’s Got Talent began filming at the London Palladium auditions on Tuesday 24 January.
The early rounds of the competition are pre-recorded before the show moves to live knockout rounds in the run-up to the final.
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No exact start date has yet been announced, but the show usually starts in mid-April and runs until late May or early June, airing on Saturdays on ITV1.
Who is judging Britain’s Got Talent this year?
The change in judging line-up is huge news for the show, which celebrated a decade with the same star-studded cast in the 2022 series.
However, former Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli has now been confirmed as David Williams’ replacement.
He joins Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden, who have been in the seat since season one, and former Strictly panelmate Alesha Dixon, who joined the show in 2012.
It’s a huge blow for ITV, as Tonioli spent 17 series on the BBC’s Strictly as one of the competition’s original judges before pandemic travel restrictions made it impossible for him to take part and he eventually quit.
Hosts Ant and Dec are also back as presenters.
What happened to David Williams?
Comedian and children’s author David Williams spent 10 successful years on the judging panel but left in the cloud ahead of the 2023 series.
In November 2022, The Guardian revealed leaked audio from the show’s 2020 auditions in which he was heard making offensive remarks about the contestants.
Williams was heard to refer to one contestant as a ‘c***’ and said of another woman at the audition: ‘She’s like that slightly boring girl you meet in the pub who thinks you want to bang them but you don’t. “
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He apologized, saying: “I’d like to apologize to the people I made disrespectful comments about during breaks in Britain’s Got Talent 2020 filming.”
“These were private conversations and – like most conversations with friends – were never meant to be shared. However, I’m sorry.’
Who won Britain’s Got Talent 2022?
The winner of the last series was comedian Axel Blake.
He was a popular winner, but controversy erupted when it emerged that Blake had already made a special Amazon Prime video of his stand-up routine – calling into question whether he could be classed as an amateur.
Defending her appearance on the streaming service in an interview with Lorraine, Blake said: “I put this show on myself and I just put my money where my mouth is and achieved this. That’s the thing, it’s like, “Oh my God, it’s Amazon Prime. But if they saw the backend, financially it didn’t look like that. All the stress, I had to borrow money from people.”
He added: “Then Amazon picked it up. It wasn’t for Amazon Prime. I didn’t know they were going to pick it up and it was a year later.”
Simon Cowell also backed him up, saying: “I know you’ve got a bit of a stick in the media – ‘It’s a fix because you’ve been on another show.’ That’s the whole point of shows like this, you’re giving someone another chance.”