Britain’s Got Talent Season 3

Introduction from Wikipedia.com

Britain’s Got Talent is a British television show on ITV and part of the Got Talent series. Presented by Ant & Dec, it is a search for Britain’s next best talent act and features singers, dancers, comedians, variety acts, and other talents of all ages. Anyone who believes they are talented is encouraged to audition. The winner of each series receives £100,000 and is given the opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of members of the Royal Family, including the Queen.

The first series of the talent show began on 9 June 2007, and was broadcast daily with a live final on 17 June 2007, revealing Paul Potts as the first winner. Street-dancer George Sampson went on to win the second series of the show on 31 May 2008. The third series began on 11 April 2009.
Series three
As announced at the end of Series 2, Britain’s Got Talent returned on 11 April 2009.[3] Ant & Dec returned as the hosts of the show. Sister-show Britain’s Got More Talent with Stephen Mulhern has also returned, as announced in the last episode of the second series.

The 2009 panel of judges consists of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. Kelly Brook was originally announced as a new fourth judge, reportedly being offered £200,000 (€230,000) for the role,[3] but was fired after just six days, having acted as a judge in Manchester only, just one of the five audition venues.

The application process took place throughout January and February 2009 with auditions being held in five of Britain’s major cities: Manchester for three days, where the judges saw a total of 120 auditionees; Glasgow for one day, viewing a total of 40 auditionees; Birmingham for three days, watching a further 120 auditionees; London for three days, seeing 128 acts; and Cardiff for one day, where they saw 40 auditionees.

The “First Round Call-Backs” took place in London on Saturday 7 February, where 40 acts were made aware that they would be competing in the live semi-finals in May.

Britain’s Got Talent 2009 kicked off on 11 April and there will be semi-final shows taking place beginning on the 24th of May, until the final on the 30th of May.

One of the most notable performances for the series was by Susan Boyle, a 47-year-old Scottish woman. Boyle sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical Les Misérables. The performance earned a unanimous “yes” vote and resounding astonishment from the judges. Her performance helped lift the show to a launch record of 11.2 million viewers. Within five days of her initial appearance, YouTube recordings of the event had collectively generated more than 100 million views. Boyle also attracted widespread international media coverage.

The semi-finals are first determined by public vote, followed by the judges. The act gathering most phone votes automatically progresses to the finals. The judges then determine which of the second and third placed acts will also progressing to the final. Susan Boyle gained the public vote on 24 May, with dance group Diversity being the judges’ choice. On the 25th dance group Flawless won the most public votes, and singer Shaun Smith was selected by the judges. On the 26th, father-and-son dance-duo Stavros Flatley won the public vote, and twelve-year-old singer Shaheen Jafargholi was chosen over dance group M.D. Showgroup by the judges. On the 28th, saxophonist Julian Smith won the public vote, while grandfather and granddaughter singing duo 2 Grand were chosen by the judges over musical theatre performer Callum Francis.

Britain’s Got Talent:

Genre Reality, Talent Show, Entertainment
Created by Simon Cowell & Syco TV
Presented by Britain’s Got Talent:
Anthony McPartlin
Declan Donnelly
Britain’s Got More Talent:
Stephen Mulhern
Judges Simon Cowell
Amanda Holden
Piers Morgan
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of series 3
No. of episodes 25 (As of series 3)
Production
Producer(s) SYCO TV in association with talkbackTHAMES
Running time 60-90 minutes (inc. comms)
Broadcast
Original channel ITV
Picture format 16:9
Original run 9 June 2007 – present