Britain’s Got Talent to let the public nominate acts secretly

The public can secretly nominate acts to audition for Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) for the first time, the ITV show has announced.

The UK talent show, hosted by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly since it began in 2007, will return for its sixteenth series in 2023 with auditions to begin in January.

Contestants will again compete for £250,000 and to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the royal family.

This year, Golden Moments were introduced which saw judges surprise an unsuspecting act, nominated without their knowledge, and invite them to audition at the London Palladium.

These moments included: showing up during a rehearsal of the Voices of Armed Forces Children’s Choir; when singing doctor Bambang Atmaja was at a Heart Breakfast interview; conservationist and poet Aneeshwar Kunchala was at school; and Skylar Blu was in a dance class.

The mother and two daughters of singer Nick Edwards surprised him while he was sat in the audience. He then performed, moving the audience to tears, and reached the semi-finals.

This year, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams were part of the panel of judges.

Walliams apologised in November for making “disrespectful comments” about contestants during breaks in filming the popular show.

It came after The Guardian reportedly obtained leaked recordings from a show at the London Palladium in January 2020.

A spokesperson for BGT said that no final decision had been made around the 2023 judging line-up.

“The judging panel for Britain’s Got Talent 2023 will be announced in due course,” the spokesperson said in a previous statement to the PA news agency.

“It’s still very much up in the air at the moment on whether David is going to take part in next year’s show.

“No decision, though, has been made as yet.”

Comedian Axel Blake was crowned the winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2022 and performed at the Royal Albert Hall for the Earl and Countess of Wessex in December.