Britain’s Got Talent responds to claims ‘surprise audition’ was staged

Britain’s Got Talent has responded to claims that Nick Edwards’ surprise audition was staged.

The new season of BGT kicked off on Saturday night on ITV.

One of the acts performing this Saturday was 35-year-old singer Nick Edwards from Doncaster who was surprised to be invited on stage to audition.

Originally sitting in the audience, Nick watched on as his daughters Savannah & Cali and their grandmother Tracey stepped out in front of the judges.

Tracey explained: “Nick doesn’t know anything about it and we’re surprising him because we want him to come and sing because he sings a lovely song for the girls. He said he’d never do it so we had to do it for him”.

Nick went on to perform his song and get four yeses from the judges – but some viewers called into question the ‘surprise’ nature of his audition.

On Twitter, some pointed out how Nick already had a microphone on while sat in the audience.

Responding to the claims, a spokesperson for the show told the Daily Mail: “We loved welcoming back our BGT viewers back last night after a year away. To report or allude to anything being staged or contrived regarding Nick’s audition would be false and incorrect.

“Quite simply, when Nick entered the Palladium auditorium during BGT auditions, he was approached to be part of our ‘gogglebox’ audience and told he would be mic’d up so we could capture his reactions throughout the day as he sat in the audience.

“He was totally unsuspecting. We did this so we could mic him up without him suspecting a thing.”

Speaking on the show, Nick said: “I think over the years I’ve lost a lot of confidence in my singing so I tend to do it at home in the shower.”

After the performance, David Walliams told Nick: “It was just so moving from start to finish. You just looked like you were going to burst into tears at every word. There’s not a dry eye in the house. It really hit me emotionally more than anything else today.”

And Amanda Holden added: “It was absolutely gorgeous.”

With four yeses, Nick is through to the next stage of the competition.

Britain’s Got Talent continues Saturday nights on ITV.