Now that the stardust has settled, I think we can all agree that the wrong move won the Britain’s Got Talent final this year.
This is nothing against the bubbly West End performer Sydnie Christmas, who has been a favorite since the first weekend of auditions and was completely uninhibited throughout the night, both with her plum slot at the end of the show and with her gift at the very end of the show. crowd-pleasing bring-home number Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
We must wish her all the best for the future, and I’m happy to publicly use her by the full name Simon Cowell almost certainly uses in private: Sydnie Cover Versions Album Released in Time for Christmas.
But Little Miss Christmas wasn’t the most surprising twist of the night.
This title belonged to a magical action. No, it wasn’t Jack Rhodes, though he was the night’s standout variety performer. And neither is Trixy, although we must praise her for pulling off a daring trick that most people think is impossible in this day and age – securing Peter Andre a spot as a guest on a variety show.
No, the real magicians of the night were four amateur illusionists who sat behind that worn-out jury table and gave us running commentary on the proceedings. If we could vote for their well-oiled actions, the result would be an even bigger landslide.
The main focus of their nonsense was a group attempt to convince the watching public that the outcome was not a foregone conclusion. (Narrator’s voice: “Actually, it was a foregone conclusion. Sydnie got almost a third of the votes cast.”)
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This was often accompanied by a concerted effort to convince us that we were watching the greatest spectacle in the 17-year history of the once-great TV show. To be fair to Simon Cowell, he did say it was “the best finale I can honestly remember”, which at least gave him a potential exit where he might not remember the others.
That’s the only slack I’m prepared to cut from it. Not least because he tried his most daring trick yet towards the end of the night. “I don’t think a single performance tonight was unprofessional,” said Simon, with the most serious expression a man wearing hipster glasses could hope to achieve.
He seemed to realize he had gone too far in his defense and hastened to issue a warning: “They all have day jobs, too.”
Unfortunately, the damage had already been done and I think the tea had already been spilled in living rooms across the country.
Come on, Simon. To continue to suggest that the likes of Sydnie, opera singer Innocent Masuku, Double Dutch group Haribow and acrobatic Taekwondo group Ssaulabi were wandering around the streets to keep warm was patently ridiculous and a complete disdain for both the show and the audience.
It was a bit like someone saying Amanda Holden couldn’t be called a professional judge on a talent show because she also had a day job playing CDs on Heart FM. It got to the point where the only real honest assessment of the night’s performances came from one of the performers themselves.
If you didn’t respect neurodiverse comedian Alex Mitchell for having the courage to get on that stage in the first place, you’d certainly applaud his entire OTT cut, pre-arranged applause to give us a fair verdict. It actually matched what we had just witnessed with our own eyes. “I wasn’t too happy with tonight,” he told Ant & Dec, who was stunned by the contract. “It wasn’t great.”
If only the judges could take a page from Alex’s book then maybe this show would be less boring in the future.
However, the chances of this happening are very low. Simon and ITV appear to have adopted a “whatever we get” policy. The ratings will never be as big as they were in the good old days when the show was truly breathtaking and unmissable, but in terms of numbers it’s doing well by modern standards, so why rock the boat?
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I understand I don’t agree with this, but I understand it. What I don’t understand is the growing rumor that ITV is seriously considering EXTENDING the show’s run next year to fill the void left by the recently and rightfully shelved Saturday Night Takeaway.
Ha? Even the most brainwashed viewer will admit that there is barely enough talent to sustain the current paper-thin format. How will they suddenly find enough to fill an extra seven weeks or so of airtime?
It displays a woeful lack of imagination on ITV’s part and is a worrying reminder of the network’s response to losing The Jeremy Kyle Show from its daytime block. It just expanded Lorraine and This Morning to fill the void – and look how it worked.
Of course, we can all guess how Simon will fill the extra hours on Britain’s Got Talent. With more non-British talent.
It’s his decision. While he’s busy counting all those sweet YouTube views from countries like Ghana, South Korea, America and Japan, I hope he’ll at least admit that he’s drifting further and further away from what made the show such a huge hit in the first place. place.
Brave Brits like Susan Boyle and Paul Potts come from the wild and surprise everyone.
This is the kind of magic we really want to see on BGT, Simon.