Britain's Got Talent series 5

The fifth series of British talent competition programme Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV, from 16 April to 4 June 2011; due to live coverage of the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final on 28 May, the final audition episode of the series was pushed back a day to avoid clashing with it. As Piers Morgan had departed from the programme the previous year, and the schedule of Simon Cowell made him unable to attend auditions, the producers arranged for Amanda Holden to be joined by David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre on the judging panel. Due to Hasselhoff's schedule during filming of the auditions, Louis Walsh stepped in as a guest judge for the sessions he could not attend.
This series saw the judging panel expanded to four judges for the first time in the programme's history, albeit for the live episodes – Cowell chose not to have either replacement drop out when he returned to attend the remainder of the contest. Because of this decision, the rules for the judges' vote had to be amended so that the public vote could be used to deal with a tied vote amongst the panel between the 2nd and 3rd placed semi-finalists of a semi-final. Apart from the change in format for the live rounds, the programme's studio used for live episodes was given a considerable revamp for the new series.
The fifth series was won by singer Jai McDowall, with singer Ronan Parke finishing in second place and boyband New Bounce third. During its broadcast, the series averaged around 10.9 million viewers, and was the first in the show's history to be aired in high definition. In an interview made after the series' broadcast, hosts Ant & Dec marked the fifth series as a poor one for the show because of the low quality of some of the participants that took part. During the broadcast of the fifth series, the programme faced accusations of unfair treatment to participants, while the producers had to bring in police to investigate a suspected act of online bullying against one of the semi-finalists during production.

Series overview

Following open auditions held the previous year, the Judges' auditions took place across January and February 2011, within London, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Liverpool and Birmingham; an additional round of auditions were held in Birmingham on 3 April, consisting of those found through their online videos on YouTube. In December 2010, Simon Cowell revealed that, because of his commitments in launching the American version of The X Factor, he would only be present for the live episodes of this series. Both this announcement, and the departure of Piers Morgan the previous year, led to a change in the judging panel, in which Amanda Holden was joined by two new judges recruited by the producers – comedian Michael McIntyre; and actor David Hasselhoff, who had previously worked as a judge on America's Got Talent. Owing to his work schedule in 2011, Hasselhoff was forced to miss the London auditions, leading to Louis Walsh standing in for him as a guest judge.
Prior to filming, plans had been made to incorporate an element from the format of The X Factor, in which auditions would be attended by a guest judge for each one; such a format addition was later made for America's Got Talent in 2015. However, the format change was never made by the production team, for unknown reasons. For the first time in the show's history, after the auditions were over, some of the acts found themselves having to perform again, due to the judges facing some difficulty in making a final decision on whom to send through into the live semi-finals.
Of the participants that took part, only forty-one made it past this stage and into the five live semi-finals, with eight appearing in the first four and nine in the final semi-final, and ten of these acts making it into the live final. Because the live episodes now featured four judges, the rule on the judges' votes was modified as a result – if the judges were split over which two acts would follow the winner of the public vote, the decision would be made by which had received the second highest number of public votes. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this series:

Participant	Age	Genre	Performance Type	Semi-final	Result
Abyss	17–28	Dance	Dance Group	3
Angela & Teddy	64 & 12	Animals	Dog Act	3
Antonio Popeye	47	Variety	Eye Popper	5
Bruce Sistaz	19 & 27	Acrobatics	Martial Arts Duo	1
Dance Angels Elite	8–24	Dance	Dance Group	4
David & Karen	39 & 27	Magic	Magic Duo	2
Donelda Guy	66	Animals	Dog Act	1
Edward Reid	35	Comedy / Singing	Comic Singer	4
Enchantment	17–51	Acrobatics	Circus Group	2
Follow the Right Path	14 & 13	Singing	Rap Duo	5
Gay & Alan	56 & 59	Music	Handbell Players	3
Girls Roc	22–25	Dance	Fire Dance Group	1
Herbie Armstrong	66	Singing / Music	Singer & Guitarist	2
Jai McDowall	24	Singing	Singer	4	'
James Hobley	11	Dance	Contemporary Dancer	3	'
Jay Worley	17	Singing	Singer	3
Jean Martyn	59	Music	Organist	2	'
Jessica Hobson	19	Singing / Music	Singer & Pianist	4
Joe Oakley	19	Danger	Trial Bike Rider	1
Les Gibson	41	Comedy	Impressionist	3	'
Lorna Bliss	32	Singing	Britney Spears Impersonator	2
Marawa	28	Variety	Hula Hoop Artist	5
Mexican Mayhem	59, 4 & 3	Animals	Dog Act	4
Michael Collings	19	Singing / Music	Singer & Guitarist	5	'
Michael Moral	21	Dance	Breakdancer	5
Mr. & Mrs.	44 & 55	Singing / Music	Singing Duo & Keyboardist	5
Nathan Wyburn	21	Variety	Visual Artist	4
New Bounce	12–16	Singing	Boy Band	2	Third Place
Out of the Blue	18–22	Singing	A Cappella Group	4
Paul Gbegbaje	19	Music	Pianist	1	'
Pip & Puppy	20 & 6 months	Singing / Animals	Opera Singer & Dog Act	5
Razy Gogonea	28	Dance	Breakdancer	5	'
Ronan Parke	12	Singing	Singer	1	'
Steven Hall	53	Comedy / Dance	Comic Dancer	4
Stuart Arnold	48	Singing / Comedy	Rapping Terminator Impersonator	1
Ted & Grace	92 & 21	Singing	Singing Duo	1
The Celtic Colleens	8–30	Dance	Blacklight Dance Group	5
The Circus of Horrors	18–54	Acrobatics	Circus Group	3
Two and a Half Men	26–28	Dance	Dance Trio	2
Up & Over It	31 & 31	Dance	Table Based Dance Duo	2
Wachiraporn Tirpak	27	Variety	Entertainer	3

Ages denoted for a participant, pertain to their final performance for this series.
The latter values pertain to the age of the dogs, as disclosed by their respective owners.
The age of the animals used by Donelda Guy were not disclosed during their time on the programme.
Locations for members of each respective group, or the group as a whole, were not disclosed during their time on the programme.
Michael Moral was not originally given a place in the live rounds. His placement was due to the high standards of his performance leading Cowell to giving him a place as a semi-finalist.

Semi-finals summary

Semi-final 1 (30 May)

Guest performance: Spelbound

Semi-final 2 (31 May)

Guest performance: Cast of Shrek the Musical
Cowell did not cast his vote due to the majority support for Jean Martyn from the other judges, but admitted that his voting intention would have been for this semi-finalist.

Semi-final 3 (1 June)

Guest performance: Avril Lavigne

Semi-final 4 (2 June)

Guest performance: Jessie J

Semi-final 5 (3 June)

Guest performance: Diversity & JLS
Jedward made a special appearance for this performance as backing dancers & singers.
Hasselhoff did not cast his vote due to the majority support for Michael Collings from the other judges, but admitted that his voting intention would have been for this semi-finalist.

Final (4 June)

Guest performances: Jackie Evancho and Nicole Scherzinger

Finalist	Order	Performance Type	Percentage	Finished
Steven Hall	1	Comic Dancer	5.4%	7th
Michael Collings	2	Singer & Guitarist	7.7%	5th
Les Gibson	3	Impressionist	2.6%	9th
James Hobley	4	Contemporary Dancer	3.5%	8th
Paul Gbegbaje	5	Pianist	5.8%	6th
Ronan Parke	6	Singer	26.7%	2nd
Jean Martyn	7	Organist	2.0%	10th
Jai McDowall	8	Singer	29.1%	1st
Razy Gogonea	9	Breakdancer	8.4%	4th
New Bounce	10	Boy Band	8.9%	3rd

Ratings

Episode	Air Date	Total viewers	ITV1 Weekly rank	Viewer Share
Auditions 1	16 April	11.42	3	40.5
Auditions 2	23 April	10.62	3	41.5
Auditions 3	30 April	10.65	1	39.9
Auditions 4	7 May	11.69	1	42.2
Auditions 5	14 May	9.72	3	32.0
Auditions 6	21 May	11.16	1	42.2
Auditions 7	29 May	11.53	1	40.4
Semi-final 1	30 May	12.27	4	41.9
Semi-final 1 results	30 May	11.16	6	38.2
Semi-final 2	31 May	10.65	10	40.5
Semi-final 2 results	31 May	10.04	15	35.8
Semi-final 3	1 June	10.31	16	41.8
Semi-final 3 results	1 June	8.67	17	28.9
Semi-final 4	2 June	10.53	12	43.2
Semi-final 4 results	2 June	10.48	11	39.1
Semi-final 5	3 June	10.36	14	43.3
Semi-final 5 results	3 June	10.61	9	42.3
Live final	4 June	12.70	2	47.0
Live final results	4 June	12.95	1	49.3

Criticism & incidents

The fifth series saw Britain's Got Talent face criticism from viewers, via social media, over unfair treatment on a participant. Their concern was over the performance of Jessica Hobson during her semi-final, and the belief her choice of song had been fixed by producers to ensure she would lose. Britain's Got More Talent presenter Stephen Mulhern refuted the allegations made by the complaints, making clear that production staff maintain high commitment to the well-being of participants and that Hobson's performance had not been rigged against her.
One of the more serious matters that occurred off-camera was the publication of a malicious blog against the participant Ronan Parke, which claimed that the competition had been fixed so that the singer would win and that he had been groomed by Simon Cowell's company Syco for two years in preparation to fulfil a record contract. However, Parke's family, Cowell, the producers and Syco, refuted the claims in the blog, even one that the blogger was an executive in the company, highlighting that the information was false and unsubstantiated. Producers determined that the nature of the blog was effectively malicious and aimed at bullying Parke online. Police were brought in to investigate the motivation of the blogger's action, and resulted in the culprit being cautioned and ordered to apologise for the distress caused to those involved.