Judges for Britain's Got Talent Series 12

Simon Cowell

Amanda Holden

Alesha Dixon

David Walliams

The twelfth series of British talent competition programme Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV, from 14 April to 3 June 2018. For this series, the live episodes were broadcast from Hammersmith Apollo, and presented by Dec Donnelly only; while Ant McPartlin suspended his TV commitments on 19 March 2018, he still appeared in the audition episodes as these had already been filmed in January and February earlier that year.^[1] Compared to previous years, this series featured a higher number of participants for the judges to select semi-finalists from, not counting those who received the Golden Buzzer, and saw the return of the Judges' Vote to the show's format.

The twelfth series was won by stand-up comedian Lost Voice Guy, with comic singer & pianist Robert White finishing in second place and singer Donchez Dacres third. During its broadcast, the series averaged 8.34 million viewers.

Series overview

Open auditions were held the previous year between October and December, before the Judges' auditions took place between January and February 2018, within the cities of Blackpool, London and Manchester.^[2] This series is notable for the absence of Anthony McPartlin in the live episodes, after he stepped down from his TV commitments in the aftermath of a traffic accident on 18 March 2018 that he was involved in. While McPartlin still appeared during audition episodes on both Britain's Got Talent and Britain's Got More Talent, as these had already been filmed prior to the start of the series' broadcast, his colleague Declan Donnelly chose to present the live episodes without him, in the wake of his colleague's decision.^[1]

This series saw a far higher number of participants making it through the first stage of auditions, than had been recorded in previous years - in addition to those receiving the Golden Buzzer, around 182 acts successfully reached the second stage.^[3] Following the eleventh series, the judges' vote was brought back for the semi-finals,^[3][4] after Cowell admitted in June 2017 that he disliked its removal from the show's format.^[5] Disruptions caused by bad weather resulted in the first live semi-final being taken off the air for a brief time, following the first performance, while a stage invader attempted to disrupt proceedings during the broadcast of the second live semi-final.^[6]

Of the participants that took part, only forty made it into the five live semi-finals - of these acts, reggae singer Donchez Dacres, opera singer Gruffydd Wyn Roberts, singer-guitarists duo Jack & Tim, singer Lifford Shillingford, and magician Marc Spelmann,^[7] each received a golden buzzer during their auditions - with eight appearing in each one, and eleven of these acts making it into the live final; the wildcard act chosen by the judges was B Positive Choir, after they lost out in the tied Judges' vote in the second semi-final.^[8] The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this series:

  Winner |   Runner-up |   Finalist |   Semi-finalist

Judges' Wildcard Finalist | Golden Buzzer Audition

Participant [9]	Age(s) 1	Genre	Act	Semi-final	Result
Acrocadabra 2	9–17	Acrobatics	Acrobatic Group	3	Eliminated
Aleksandar Mileusnić	23	Singing	Swing Singer	3	Eliminated
Amy Marie Borg	16	Singing	Opera Singer	4	Eliminated
Andrew Lancaster	32	Comedy	Impressionist	2	Eliminated
B Positive Choir	22–62	Singing	Choir	2	Finalist
Baba Yega	21–33	Dance	Dance Group	4	Eliminated
Bring It North 2	10–11	Singing	Boyband	5	Eliminated
Cali Swing	9–14	Dance	Salsa Dance Group	1	Eliminated
Calum Courtney	10	Singing	Singer	2	Finalist
DeMille & Muoneké 2	22 & 51	Singing	Jazz Singing Duo	5	Eliminated
DMU Gospel Choir	16–55	Singing	Gospel Choir	3	Eliminated
Donchez Dacres	60	Singing	Reggae Singer	2	Finalist
DVJ	10–18	Dance	Street Dance Group	4	Finalist
Ellie & Jeki	29 & 34	Magic	Quick Change Duo	1	Eliminated
Father Ray Kelly	64	Singing	Singer	5	Eliminated
Futunity	8–24	Dance	Dance Group	2	Eliminated
Giang Brothers	29–33	Acrobatics	Acrobatic Duo	5	Finalist
Gruffydd Wyn	22	Singing	Opera Singer	3	Finalist
Jack & Tim	12 & 43	Singing / Music	Singing & Guitarist Duo	4	Finalist
Lexie & Christopher	10 & 10	Dance	Ballroom Dance Duo	5	Eliminated
Lifford Shillingford	42	Singing	Singer	1	Eliminated
Lost Voice Guy	37	Comedy	Stand Up Comedian	1	Winner
Maddox Dixon	31	Magic	Close Up Magician	1	Eliminated
Magus Utopia	24–40	Magic	Illusionists	2	Eliminated
Mandy Muden	55	Comedy / Magic	Comic Magician	5	Eliminated
Marc Spelmann	46	Magic	Magician	3	Eliminated
Marty Putz	55	Comedy	Comedian	4	Eliminated
Matt Johnson	43	Danger	Escape Artist	1	Eliminated
Micky P Kerr	36	Comedy / Singing / Music	Comic Singer & Guitarist	5	Finalist
Mr Uekusa	30	Comedy	Comedian	3	Eliminated
Nick Page	47	Comedy	Stand Up Comedian	2	Eliminated
Noel James	52	Comedy	Stand Up Comedian	4	Eliminated
Olena Uutai	31	Singing	Throat Singer	4	Eliminated
Rise Unbroken 2	10–24	Dance	Dance Group	3	Eliminated
Robert White	41	Comedy / Singing / Music	Comic Singer & Keyboardist	3	Runner-Up
Ronan Busfield	33	Singing	Singer	2	Eliminated
Sarah Llewellyn	32	Acrobatics / Singing	Contortionist & Opera Singer	5	Eliminated
Sascha Williams	29	Danger	Rolla Bolla Acrobat	4	Eliminated
Shameer Rayes	19	Dance	Dancer	1	Eliminated
The D-Day Darlings	27–39	Singing	Vocal Harmony Group	1	Finalist

• ^1 Ages denoted for a participant(s), pertain to their final performance for this series.
• ^2 Each respective participant(s) auditioned under a different name, before changing them for their semi-final appearance.
• ^3 Locations for members of each respective group, or the group as a whole, were not disclosed during their time on the programme.

Semi-finals summary

Buzzed out | Judges' vote |   Won the public vote

  Won the judges' vote |   Lost the judges' vote |   Eliminated

Semi-final 1 (28 May)

Guest Performers, Results Show: Diversity, and cast of Matilda the Musical^[10]

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and judges' votes				Finished [11]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
Cali Swing	1					7th - Eliminated
Lifford Shillingford	2					6th - Eliminated
Shameer Rayes	3					4th - Eliminated
Maddox Dixon	4					3rd (Lost Judges' Vote)
Ellie & Jeki	5					8th - Eliminated
Lost Voice Guy	6					1st (Won Public Vote)
Matt Johnson 4	7					5th - Eliminated
The D-Day Darlings	8					2nd (Won Judges' Vote)

• ^4 For health and safety reasons, Matt Johnson's semi-final performance required paramedics to be brought in as a precaution.^[12]

Semi-final 2 (29 May)

Guest Performer, Results Show: Alfie Boe^[10]

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and judges' votes				Finished [11]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
B Positive Choir 5	1					3rd (Judges' Vote tied – Lost on Public Vote)
Futunity	2					4th - Eliminated
Calum Courtney	3					2nd (Judges' Vote tied – Won on Public Vote)
Andrew Lancaster	4					7th - Eliminated
Nick Page	5					8th - Eliminated
Ronan Busfield	6					6th - Eliminated
Magus Utopia	7					5th - Eliminated
Donchez Dacres	8					1st (Won Public Vote)

• ^5 B Positive Choir were later sent through to the final as the judges' wildcard.

Semi-final 3 (30 May)

Guest Performer, Results Show: Rita Ora^[10]

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and judges' votes				Finished [11]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
Acrocadabra	1					6th - Eliminated
DMU Gospel Choir	2					7th - Eliminated
Marc Spelmann	3					3rd (Judges' Vote tied – Lost on Public Vote)
Mr Uekusa	4					8th - Eliminated
Aleksandar Mileusnić	5					4th - Eliminated
Robert White	6					1st (Won Public Vote)
Rise Unbroken	7					5th - Eliminated
Gruffydd Wyn Roberts	8					2nd (Judges' Vote tied – Won on Public Vote)

Semi-final 4 (31 May)

Guest Performers, Results Show: Cast of Chicago^[10]

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and judges' votes				Finished [11]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
Olena Uutai	1					8th - Eliminated
Amy Marie Borg	2					5th - Eliminated
Noel James	3					3rd (Lost Judges' Vote)
Baba Yega	4					6th - Eliminated
Jack & Tim	5					2nd (Won Judges' Vote)
Sascha Williams 6	6					4th - Eliminated
Marty Putz	7					7th - Eliminated
DVJ	8					1st (Won Public Vote)

^6 For health and safety reasons, Sascha William's semi-final performance required fire extinguishers to be on standby as a precaution.

Semi-final 5 (1 June)

Guest Performer, Results Show: Tokio Myers^[10]

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and judges' votes				Finished [11]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
DeMille & Muoneké	1					6th - Eliminated
Lexie & Christopher	2					7th - Eliminated
Micky P Kerr	3					1st (Won Public Vote)
Sarah Llewellyn	4					8th - Eliminated
Bring It North	5					5th - Eliminated
Mandy Muden	6					3rd (Judges' Vote tied – Lost on Public Vote)
Father Ray Kelly	7					4th - Eliminated
Giang Brothers	8					2nd (Judges' Vote tied – Won on Public Vote)

Ratings

Criticism

Viewers criticised BGT's twelfth series over two separate matters. The first concerned one of the golden buzzers conducted in the auditions for the twelfth series for singer Lifford Shillingford as being a "fix". Viewers complained on social media that he maintained a close connection to judge Alesha Dixon, who provided the buzzer, and thus had an unfair advantage over other participants. Both Dixon and Shillingford denied the allegations, which focused on comments made by the judge over the singer's performance, clarifying that while they knew each other, it was through their mutual work in the music industry and not from a close friendship.^[15][16]

The second concerned the guest performance by the cast members of the musical Magic Mike for the live final. The complaint centered around the suitability of the performance for a "family-based show", including the nature of the performers' routines and the overall tone of the performance. In response, the broadcaster refuted the allegations against the guest performers involvement, making clear that the content had been checked thoroughly to ensure it was suitable for young viewers and had met strict "compliance guidelines".^[17]

References