ANT and Dec say life felt “a bit empty” without their yearly Britain’s Got Talent stint after the series was axed last year amid the pandemic. The presenting duo admitted they are thrilled to be back hosting the show after a year off – their first time with a live audience since Covid struck. Dec […]
ANT and Dec say life felt “a bit empty” without their yearly Britain’s Got Talent stint after the series was axed last year amid the pandemic.
The presenting duo admitted they are thrilled to be back hosting the show after a year off – their first time with a live audience since Covid struck.
Dec said: “The time off was bizarre, because it has been an annual event.
“We would come back from the New Year and the first thing we’d do was BGT auditions. Just to not have that in the diary felt a bit empty and a bit weird.”
But both say the break has worked wonders for the standard of acts.
Ant said: “Acts had two years to really work on their performance, so the talent was really strong.”
And Dec added: “We had a lot of acts who have gone, ‘Oh gosh, I’ve never had the courage to, but since everything that’s happened over the last years, I’ve just thought, sod it. I’m going to go for it, grab my opportunity’.”
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Head judge Simon also detailed what a “difficult decision” to call of the series last year, but he had become “nervous” about making the show as a new variant began to sweep the country and called the series off just weeks before auditions were due to begin.
But he will with judges Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams and of course hosts Ant & Dec when the show returns this weekend.
He said: “As much as I didn’t want to not make the show last year, we just couldn’t at that point, it would have been literally impossible.
“We had to stop it at the last moment, it was a difficult decision to make but it was the right one.
“I think off the back of that, when we did all get back together, I think we realised how much we enjoy making the show.
“We did miss each other, we get on and work well together.”
He added: “It was hard but I’ve got to be honest, because of what was happening at the time, which was the new variant had come out, I got really nervous about it.
“We were about two or three weeks out from auditions and I just thought, ‘We can’t do this, the risk to everyone is too high’.
“So it was tough, but I knew it was the right thing to do because it wasn’t like the show was never going to come back.
“We always knew it would come back this year and it would come round quickly, which it did.
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“So I missed it but I had no choice. I hope that break, having not had it on air for a year, that the audience will like it even more, I hope they missed it.”
Britain’s Got Talent returns to ITV on Saturday April 16 at 8pm.
