Britain's Got Talent series 1

The first series of British talent competition programme Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV, from 9 to 17 June 2007; it was commissioned following the success of the first season of America's Got Talent, helping to revive production of the British edition after initial development was suspended in 2005. Simon Cowell, the programme's creator, formed the judging panel with both Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden, with Ant & Dec operating as the programme's hosts. Alongside the main programme, the first series was accompanied by a spin-off sister programme on ITV2, titled Britain's Got More Talent, hosted by Stephen Mulhern.
The first series was won by opera singer Paul Potts; as of today, result information on other finalists has yet to be disclosed. During its broadcast, the series averaged around 8.4 million viewers. The first series faced controversy relating to the involvement of two participants who failed to disclose information that would make them ineligible for participation, alongside receiving criticism from viewers for airing footage that was considered unsuitable during one of the semi-finals.

Series overview

After Simon Cowell pitched to ITV his plans for a televised talent competition, production was green-lighted for a full series after a pilot episode was created in mid-2005, with the original panel being Cowell, journalist Piers Morgan and former This Morning presenter, Fern Britton. However, a dispute broke out between Paul O'Grady, the original choice as host for the programme, and the broadcaster, that resulted in O'Grady signing up to another broadcaster. His decision resulted in production being suspended, and did not resume until in the wake of the success of the first series of America's Got Talent. When it did resume, production staff focused on a schedule of ten episodes to begin with for the first series of Britain's Got Talent, with major auditions for potential acts held within the cities of Manchester, Birmingham, London and Cardiff. The initial choices for judges changed to begin with following O'Grady's decision to switch broadcasters, with it eventually finalised on Cowell, Morgan and actress Amanda Holden rather than Britton as originally intended and the hosts being Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, commonly known as Ant & Dec.
Of the participants who auditioned to be in the contest for this series, only 24 made it into the three live semi-finals, with eight appearing in each one, and six of these acts moving on into the live final. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this series:
Key: | | |

Participant	Age	Genre	Performance Type	Semi-final	Result
Bessie Cursons	11	Singing	Musical Theatre Performer	2	'
Caroline Boyes	48	Dance	Dancer	1
Cheeky Bits	14–29	Dance	Dance Group	3
Connie Talbot	6	Singing	Singer	3	'
Craig Womersley	17	Variety	Baton Twirler	2
Crazeehorse	29–37	Acrobatics	Acrobatic Duo	2
Crew 82	18–32	Music	Beatboxing Group	3
Damon Scott	27	Comedy	Ventriloquist	1	'
Doctor Gore	30	Magic	Gore Magician	3
Dominic Smith	14	Singing	Singer	1
Jack Reeve	80	Dance	Tap Dancer	2
Jake Pratt	10	Comedy	Comedian	2
Kombat Breakers	13–25	Dance	Dance Group	2	'
Luke & Charlotte	11 & 11	Dance	Ballroom Dance Duo	1
MD Productions	11–28	Dance	Dance Group	1
Mel's Klever K9’S	10–25	Animals / Dance	Dog Act	1
Mike Garbutt	37	Comedy	Impressionist	3
Paul Potts	36	Singing	Opera Singer	1	'
Scott Holtom	21	Dance	Breakdancer	3
The Bar Wizards	26—28	Variety	Juggling Duo	3	'
The Free Runners	17–35	Acrobatics	Free Running Group	1
The Mini-Mezzos	8–11	Dance	Dance Group	2
Tony Laf	26	Singing / Music	Singer & Guitarist	3
Victoria Armstrong	29	Variety	Angle Grinder	2

Final (17 June)

Finalist	Order	Performance Type	Result
Kombat Breakers	1	Dance Group	Finalist
Damon Scott	2	Puppeteer	Finalist
Bessie Cursons	3	Musical Theatre Performer	Finalist
The Bar Wizards	4	Cocktail Juggling Duo	Finalist
Connie Talbot	5	Singer	Finalist
Paul Potts	6	Opera Singer

Ratings

Episode	Air date	Total viewers	ITV1 Weekly rank	Viewer share
Auditions 1	9 June	5.20	12	22.7%
Auditions 2	10 June	6.73	8	28.0%
Auditions 3	11 June	7.28	15	29.4%
Auditions 4	12 June	7.39	13	29.3%
Auditions 5	13 June	7.51	11	29.2%
Semi-final 1	14 June	8.36	9	34.0%
Semi-final 2	15 June	9.28	8	38.1%
Semi-final 3	16 June	9.29	7	40.9%
Live final	17 June	11.58	1	43.7%
Live final results	17 June	11.45	2	44.7%

Criticism & controversies

The first series of Britain's Got Talent found itself marred with controversy over two participants - Richard Bates, and Kit Kat Dolls - that auditioned for the competition, after they were found to have breached rules that required personal details and information that was not "untruthful, inaccurate or misleading". Bates was removed at the request of Lancashire Police, after they revealed that he had not disclosed being on the UK's Violent and Sex Offender Register at the time of filming for an offence he had committed in 2005, while the Kit Kat Dolls were disqualified after three of their members were discovered to be secretly working as prostitutes during an undercover investigation by the News of the World.
When the live rounds took place, viewers criticised the programme for the involvement of magician Doctor Gore. Their complaints focused on the nature of his performance and their presentation, which they deemed as unsuitable for a family-orientated programme that would be watched by young children. Production staff claimed in their defence that the performance was thoroughly reviewed before it was broadcast, but the investigation of regulator Ofcom ruled against Britain's Got Talent for breaching its broadcasting code with regards to protecting young children from unsuitable material.