As this is the most recent BGT thread I might as well post this in here. This finalists revealed show is interesting in that they've made 90 minutes out of footage they'd normally shoot for just a 15 minute last part of the last audition show.
As this is the most recent BGT thread I might as well post this in here. This finalists revealed show is interesting in that they've made 90 minutes out of footage they'd normally shoot for just a 15 minute last part of the last audition show.
I think they did a decent job of it. Was essentially a recap show but with a nice hook. The right decision to hold it back from the auditions and use it now to segway into the semi finals.
The phone calls suggests they were planning for this to possibly be an even smaller part of the show than normal this year. Possibly cost cutting, or maybe (as it was filmed quite late in February) someone saw the way the wind was blowing re. Covid and decided getting hundreds of people to traipse to London was unwise. That seems unlikely though.
Perhaps the most likely explanation is a filming clash with Saturday Night Takeaway (hence no Ant and Dec) and them deciding with no hosts to greet the acts that they might as well just call them.
A couple of acts have pulled out, the dancing dachshunds and the improvisation group are the ones I’ve heard of.
Ant and Dec have always been there when SNT has been on, at least since 2013, and this bit is usually filmed during March. I don’t think it’s to do with COVID if it was filmed in February, the panic buttons were only really starting to be pressed on the first weekend of March, at least here in the UK.
I don't think it would have been in that format due to cost, I reckon they could see that there was a chance the semis might not be happening as planned and went for a type of reveal that could be used either way. If they've have invited everyone down and revealed like they normally do, chances are a number of them will have been shown going through who can no longer be part of it. Similarly I bet a number of people who were originally out are now back in and that would have been a nightmare in the edit.
And that's why I think they did phone calls rather than video calls which would have been much more visual. I expect all of those videos of the contestants finding out were shot fairly recently and they were probably being told by the producers rather than any of the judges!