Britain’s Got Talent are preparing to film their live shows without an audience, according to reports.
The popular competition format, which has been a summer schedule staple since it hit screens in 2006, has seen its usual live semi-finals and grand finals delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
However, for the first time in the show’s 14 year history, ITV bosses are allegedly planning to host the lives under socially-distanced settings to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and to protect the cast and crew from the virus.
“ITV bosses are having to plan for every eventuality and as it stands, the BGT live shows won’t be filmed with an audience,” a TV source revealed.
“If guidelines change and they can get in a crowd using social distancing, they’ll consider it. But for the moment, the only people present will be a small crew and the judges, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams.
"BGT bosses know they can keep production values sky high and that while the audience have some role to play, most of the reaction comes from the judges.”
In a bid to distract from the missing crowds, bosses are thought to be pushing the limits of each performance to guarantee more thrills.
“The plan is to make the show bigger and more daring than usual, distracting from the lack of the audience and making sure the judges are on the edge of their seats,” the insider continued to The Sun.
"BGT smashed the ratings when the pre-recorded auditions aired earlier this spring.
“The team behind the show think they can more than replicate that with the lives, even if the only applause you’ll hear is from a recording.”
The news comes after BGT judge Amanda Holden previously claimed that the lives would “never” go ahead without a studio audience.
“All of the main judges have been given a date to hold in early autumn to see if it works live. But we would never do it without an audience because we’ve always said the British public is the fifth judge,” she told HuffPost UK.
“So we can’t do it without them – it would be no fun without them! We’ll see what happens, but we are planning to do it this year."
A Britain’s Got Talent spokesperson declined to comment when approached by Standard Online.
