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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Will Twigger

BGT confirms when final auditions are as show to go off-air amid coronavirus pandemic

Britain's Got Talent's show for next week will be one of the last for a while, it seems, if not the last.

The audition stage, which draws to a close with next weekend's show, was pre-recorded before the coronavirus crisis - but the live shows are a different story.

While the judges will most likely be shown deciding on final acts, this normally features within the audition episodes.

It's not yet clear if there will be one more episode past next Saturday's, which BGT confirmed on Twitter was the final of the auditions round.

With the country remaining on lockdown, the live shows have had to be postponed indefinitely.

It's currently unknown when the live shows will go ahead (ITV)

It will also air an hour earlier, in the 7pm slot.

ITV said in a statement before this series started that they'd been considering ways to make the live shows happen, but that it's just not possible.

A spokesman said: "We have been working with the brilliant production teams at Thames and Syco to find a way of making the live finals work.

Tonight saw a man survive more than four minutes underwater (ITV)

"However, in light of the latest government health guidelines and in line with our priority of safeguarding the wellbeing of everyone involved with our programmes, production of the live shows cannot go ahead as planned.

"The live finals will therefore be broadcast later in the year."

The possibility of conducting the shows without an audience has been floated, but a source told the Mirror that this would be a stretch.

It's said that there's no real possibility of the live shows going ahead until the crisis is over (ITV)

"Can we do it without an audience? Yes," they said, "But would we want to? No.

"And then there are the acts.

"We're going to put all those people in that choir together? You're going to fly over that dance troupe from India?"

The most recent show proved a hit with fans, as a 10 year old girl brought the house down with her singing, a kids' dance group sent out a powerful message about mental health, and an escape artist survived four and a half minutes underwater.

Britain's Got Talent airs Saturdays at 8pm on ITV.

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