The Britain’s Got Talent judges have shared all on the show’s semi-finals as they begin this weekend.
After being postponed from May, Saturday night finally sees the next stage of this year’s competition kick off.
Over five weekends, eight acts will perform with two making it through to the grand final in October.
However it’s all set to be very different with no live audience and socially distanced judges.
Simon Cowell – who will sit out the semi-finals due to an injury – said: “We’re always going to miss not having a live audience, but the safety of everyone is more important. We’re going to have to rehearse acts in a completely different way.
“But everyone’s been up for it, the contestants, the crew and the whole team, it’s been amazing to see everyone come together and work so hard to get Britain’s Got Talent back on air.”
He added: “Hopefully, from what I have seen it won’t change the vibe in the room.
“I don’t want to give too much away but what we are planning to do will mean it will still feel like you’ve got this tremendous energy behind us on the panel.
“You’ll be able to see and hear the audience watching at home, it’ll just be different. It’s going to be fascinating to be a part of this.”
Meanwhile Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon spoke about adapting to the changes both on and off screen.
“Being a meter apart will be annoying because we’re a very emotive judging panel and we hug one another if an act has been particularly emotional and set one of us off crying,” Amanda admitted. “It’s going to feel very odd explaining to all our kids that they can’t come and hang out backstage.
Alesha added: “Now with the social distancing, we have had to adapt. It’s going to be different from what everyone is used to but everyone’s working hard to make sure we still have that special vibe to the show.”
She continued: “Even for me as a performer, it’s a very hard one to predict or to call how it’s going to go.
“I don’t actually know how I would feel if I walked out to perform and there was no one there to perform to, but I guess I would just visualise the audience at home.
“I would remember that there’s still millions of people watching from home, and I would think about that whilst I’m doing the performance.”
Alesha went on to suggest that the pressure was on this year’s acts.
She explained: “I think we will be very mindful and compassionate to the contestants that they are in a unique situation. That doesn’t mean that they get an easy time and that it means that they don’t have to work as hard.
“If anything, we’d be like, ‘No, come on. You’ve got to really show us what you’re made of now because you don’t have the audience who acts as like a fifth judge.’ They don’t have that. They don’t have them on their side. So even more, they got to prove themselves.”
Meanwhile David Walliams thinks everything has helped leave the competition “wide open” this year.
He said: “I don’t think any of us can predict who is going to win the series this year. It’s much more open than people might think. Someone you might not have considered as a potential winner during the auditions might come on and be sensational, capture the public’s attention and win.
“It’s simply a case of coming on that stage and connecting with the audience in the moment.”
Britain’s Got Talent semi-finals air at 8PM on ITV from Saturday, September 5.
