Britain's Got Talent series 3

The third series of British talent competition programme Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV, from 11 April to 30 May 2009. The judging panel of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan returned from the previous series; a fourth judge, Kelly Brook, was added, but removed from the series shortly after filming began.

Britain's Got Talent
Series 3
Hosted by	Ant & Dec (ITV) Stephen Mulhern (ITV2)
Judges	Piers Morgan Amanda Holden Simon Cowell Kelly Brook (Manchester auditions)
Winner	Diversity
Runner-up	Susan Boyle
Release
Original network	ITV ITV2 (BGMT)
Original release	11 April (2009-04-11) – 30 May 2009 (2009-05-30)
Series chronology
List of episodes

Judges and Presenter(s) for Britain's Got Talent Series 3

Piers Morgan

Amanda Holden

Simon Cowell

Kelly Brook (Guest)

Ant & Dec (ITV)

Stephen Mulhern (ITV2)

The third series was won by street dance troupe Diversity, with singer Susan Boyle finishing in second place and saxophonist Julian Smith third. During its broadcast, the series averaged around 13.3 million viewers, with the figures partly helped by the notable performances of Boyle during her time in on the show,^[1] with her audition on the third series considered one of the most famous moments in the programme's history.^[2] The programme faced criticism during the third series for airing an unsuitable performance conducted in an audition, while Boyle's well-being became a major concern for producers following the final.

Series overview

Brook was initially intended as a fourth judge, before producers relegated her to being a guest judge.

Following open auditions held the previous year, the Judges' auditions took place across January and February 2009, within Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, London and Cardiff. Prior to the auditions, Kelly Brook was announced as a permanent fourth judge.^[3][4] However, after six days of filming the Manchester auditions Brook was removed from the series. She was credited as a guest judge when her appearance was broadcast.^[5]

The third series proved popular amongst viewers for the performances of Susan Boyle, whom deemed her their favourite amongst the participants despite becoming the runner-up in the competition. Her performances made her internationally famous, launching her career as a singer, with her audition performance, involving her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical Les Misérables, being later posted to YouTube and earning around 100 million views within five days of its posting.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]}

Of the participants that took part, only forty made it past this stage and into the five live semi-finals,^[12] with eight appearing in each one, and ten of these acts making it into the live final. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this series:

Key:   Winner |   Finalist |   Runner-Up |   Semi-finalist

Participant	Age(s) 1	Genre	Act	Semi-Final	Result
2 Grand	76 & 12	Singing	Singing Duo	4	Finalist
Aidan Davis	12	Dance	Street Dancer	5	Finalist
Ben & Becky	18 & 16	Dance	Dance Duo	3	Eliminated
Brit Chix	23–26	Singing / Music	Rock Band	4	Eliminated
Callum Francis	12	Singing	Singer	4	Eliminated
Darth Jackson	37	Dance	Dancer	1	Eliminated
DCD Seniors	14–21	Dance	Dance Group	5	Eliminated
Diversity	13–25	Dance	Street Dance Group	1	Winner
DJ Talent	30	Singing	Rapper	2	Eliminated
Fabia Cerra	35	Dance	Burlesque Dancer	4	Eliminated
Faces of Disco	24 & 30	Comedy / Dance	Comic Dance Duo	1	Eliminated
Flawless	20–31	Dance	Street Dance Group	2	Finalist
Floral High Notes	43 & 46	Singing / Variety	Opera Singer & Florist	3	Eliminated
Fred Bowers	73	Dance	Breakdancer	4	Eliminated
Gareth Oliver	28	Comedy	Ventriloquist	2	Eliminated
Good Evans	6–42	Singing	Singing Group	5	Eliminated
Greg Pritchard	24	Singing	Opera Singer	5	Eliminated
Harmony	14 & 16	Singing	Singing Duo	3	Eliminated
Hollie Steel	10	Singing	Singer	5	Finalist
Hot Honeyz	16–25	Dance	Dance Group	2	Eliminated
Jackie Prescott & Tippy Toes	40 & 2 2	Animals	Dog Act	4	Eliminated
Jamie Pugh	38	Singing	Opera Singer	2	Eliminated
Julia Naidenko	24	Dance	Belly Dancer	1	Eliminated
Julian Smith	40	Music	Saxophonist	4	Finalist
Kay Oresanya	31	Variety	Human Saxophonist	3	Eliminated
Luke Clements	36	Variety	Fruit Juggler	5	Eliminated
Martin "Gos" Matcham	35	Singing / Music	Singer & Guitarist	5	Eliminated
MD Showgroup	9–17	Dance	Dance Group	3	Eliminated
Merlin Cadogan	35	Danger	Escape Artist	2	Eliminated
Natalie Okri	10	Singing	Singer	1	Eliminated
Nick Hell	26	Danger	Sideshow Performer	1	Eliminated
Peter Coghlan	48	Dance	Drag Dancer	2	Eliminated
Shaheen Jafargholi	12	Singing	Singer	3	Finalist
Shaun Smith	17	Singing	Singer	2	Finalist
Stavros Flatley	13 & 40	Dance	Dance Duo	3	Finalist
Sue Son	24	Music	Electric Violinist	1	Eliminated
Sugar Free	16–23	Dance	Dance Group	4	Eliminated
Susan Boyle	48	Singing	Singer	1	Runner-Up
The Barrow Boys	18–27	Dance	Wheel Barrow Dance Trio	3	Eliminated
The Dreambears	29–34	Dance	Dance Trio	5	Eliminated

• ^1 Ages denoted for a participant(s), pertain to their final performance for this series.
• ^2 The latter value pertains to the age of the dog, as disclosed by its owner.

Semi-final summary

Buzzed out | Judges' vote |   Advanced - Public Vote

  Advanced - Judges' Vote |   Eliminated - Judges' Vote |   Eliminated

Semi-final 1 (24 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result [13]
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
Diversity	1				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
Sue Son	2				Eliminated
Darth Jackson	3				Eliminated
Natalie Okri	4				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Julia Naidenko	5				Eliminated
Nick Hell	6				Eliminated
Faces of Disco	7				Eliminated
Susan Boyle	8				Advanced (Won Public Vote)

Semi-final 2 (25 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result [13]
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
DJ Talent	1				Eliminated
Merlin Cadogan	2				Eliminated
Hot Honeyz	3				Eliminated
Jamie Pugh	4				Eliminated
Peter Coghlan	5				Eliminated
Gareth Oliver	6				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Shaun Smith	7				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
Flawless	8				Advanced (Won Public Vote)

Semi-final 3 (26 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result [13]
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
Harmony	1				Eliminated
Kay Oresanya	2				Eliminated
Ben & Becky	3				Eliminated
Shaheen Jafargholi	4				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
The Barrow Boys	5				Eliminated
MD Showgroup	6				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Floral High Notes	7				Eliminated
Stavros Flatley	8				Advanced (Won Public Vote)

Semi-final 4 (28 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result [13]
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
Sugar Free	1				Eliminated
Jackie Prescott & Tippy Toes	2				Eliminated
Callum Francis	3				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Fred Bowers	4				Eliminated
Brit Chix	5				Eliminated
Julian Smith	6				Advanced (Won Public Vote)
2 Grand	7				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
Fabia Cerra	8				Eliminated

Semi-final 5 (29 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result [13]
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
The Dreambears	1				Eliminated
Good Evans	2				Eliminated
Luke Clements	3				Eliminated
Hollie Steel	4				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
Martin Matcham	5				Eliminated
Aidan Davis	6				Advanced (Won Public Vote)
DCD Seniors	7				Eliminated
Greg Pritchard	8				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)

Final (30 May)

  Winner |   Runner-up

Finalist	Order	Result [13]
Flawless	1	8th
Shaheen Jafargholi	2	7th
Aidan Davis	3	5th
2 Grand	4	10th
Hollie Steel	5	6th
Stavros Flatley	6	4th
Shaun Smith	7	9th
Susan Boyle	8	2nd
Diversity	9	1st
Julian Smith	10	3rd

Ratings

Main article: List of Britain's Got Talent episodes

Episode	Air Date	Total Viewers (millions) [14]	ITV1 Weekly rank [14]	Viewer Share
Auditions 1	11 April	11.21	1	45.1% [15]
Auditions 2	18 April	12.95	1	50.6% [16]
Auditions 3	25 April	13.21	1	52.3% [17]
Auditions 4	2 May	11.30	1	47.2% [18]
Auditions 5	9 May	11.98	1	48.4% [19]
Auditions 6	16 May	11.09	1	41.0% [20]
Auditions 7	23 May	12.62	2	51.1% [21]
Semi-final 1	24 May	12.93	1	49.2% [22]
Semi-final 2	25 May	14.66	3	51.6% [23]
Semi-final 3	26 May	13.56	5	49.9% [24]
Semi-final 4	28 May	13.11	6	51.2% [25]
Semi-final 5	29 May	13.84	4	57.3% [26]
Live final	30 May	16.36	2	71% [27]
Live final results		18.29	1	67.6%[27]

Criticism & incidents

The third series saw Britain's Got Talent face criticism for the involvement of burlesque dancer Fabia Cerra. The primary concern of the complaints that were raised were over the unsuitable nature of her performance being shown on a programme aimed at a family audience. Although Ofcom investigated the matter, ITV argued in their defence that production staff had done their utmost to edit all footage to censor all inappropriate scenes of her audition, making use of editing to avoid showing anything that would breach the regulator's broadcasting codes.^[28]

However, the involvement of Susan Boyle required greater attention from the programme's staff, most particularly in the live rounds as she grew in fame with her performances. Media attention on Boyle that brought forth a number of questionable claims, forced the finalist to check into the Priory psychiatric clinic in London to recover,^[29] leaving producers the task of ensuring she had privacy from the continual media intrusion into her private life. The increasing amount of attention from the general public, over her care and well being,^[30][31] led to the producers asking for assistance from the Press Complaints Commission, who issued instructions to press editors to adhere firmly to the code of press conduct in regards to its rules on privacy - this included not allowing unauthorised photography to take place and respecting Boyle's entitlement to privacy while she recovered from her involvement in the programme.^[32][33]

References

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2. "10 Years of BGT: Top Ten memorable moments". www.itv.com. 16 March 2019.
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28. "Britain's Got Talent burlesque stripper prompts dozens of complaints to Ofcom". The Guardian. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
29. "Boyle favourite for Talent finale". BBC News. 30 May 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
30. "Talent star Boyle taken to clinic". BBC News. 1 June 2009.
31. Jamieson, Alastair (3 June 2009). "Susan Boyle could be in Priory clinic for weeks, says doctor". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
32. Brook, Stephen (3 June 2009). "Susan Boyle: press warned to back off Britain's Got Talent star". The Guardian. London.
33. Editors Code of Practice