The eleventh series of British talent competition programme Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV, from 15 April to 3 June 2017; because the One Love Manchester concert was to take place on 4 June, the live final was brought forward a day to avoid clashing with it.[1][2] Following the closure of Fountain Studios the previous year, the live episodes were broadcast from Elstree Studios.[3] The change in location allowed for a revamp of the studio used by both the main programme and its sister show, Britain's Got More Talent.[4]
For the first time in eleven years, this series featured no judges' vote for each semi-final – instead the acts getting the highest and second-highest tally of public votes would move on to the live final;[5] after the series' conclusion, Cowell admitted that he disliked this format change.[6] In addition to the judges not voting for an act, the Public Wildcard format was dropped from the show, while the number of acts making it into the semi-finals was reduced to 40, returning to the original semi-final format used prior to the sixth series.
The eleventh series was won by pianist Tokio Myers, with magician Issy Simpson finishing in second place[7] and comedian Daliso Chaponda third. During its broadcast, the series averaged around 9.1 million viewers.
Series overview
Following open auditions held the previous year between October and December,[8] the Judges' audition took place between January and February 2017, within Blackpool, London, Birmingham and Salford.[9] Along with discontinuing the use of the Public wildcard format, production staff changed the rules to suspend the use of the Judges' vote – the change meant that the voting system would be purely conducted by a public vote, with the semi-finalists receiving the highest and second-highest tally of votes respectively automatically securing a place in the live final. This change in format was not announced until 27 May 2017;[5] on 5 June, following the conclusion of the eleventh series, Cowell admitted he disliked this change and had production staff informed it would not be used for the next series.[6]
Of the participants that took part, only forty made it into the five live semi-finals – of these acts, singer Sarah Ikumu, dance group MerseyGirls, comedian Daliso Chaponda, comic magician Matt Edwards, and singer Kyle Tomlinson,[10] each received a golden buzzer during their auditions – with eight appearing in each one – returning to the original arrangement before the sixth series – and eleven of these acts making it into the live final; the wildcard act chosen by the judges was Sarah Ikumu, after she placed 3rd in the public vote in the third semi-final. 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
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