Everything we know so far

Britain’s Got Talent is set to return with a brand new judging line-up for 2023 – a rarity for a show that kept the same panel for a decade.

As Bruno Tonioli is confirmed to replace David Walliams and auditions get under way, what do we know about this year’s series so far?

When will Britain’s Got Talent be back on TV?

The new series of Britain’s Got Talent began filming auditions at the London Palladium on Tuesday, 24 January.

Early rounds of the contest are pre-recorded, before the show moves into live knock-out rounds in the run-up to the final.

Read more: Every judge of Britain’s Got Talent so far

No exact start date has been announced yet, but the show usually begins in mid April and runs to late May or early June, airing on Saturdays on ITV1.

Who is judging Britain’s Got Talent this year?

A change in the judging line-up is huge news for the show, which celebrated a decade with the same star cast in the 2022 series.

However, former Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli has now been confirmed as a replacement for David Walliams.

He joins Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden, who have been in place since the first season, and ex Strictly panel co-star Alesha Dixon who joined the show in 2012.

It’s a huge coup for ITV as Tonioli spent 17 series at the BBC with Strictly as one of the contest’s original judges, before pandemic travel restrictions made it impossible for him to take part and he eventually bowed out.

Presenters Ant and Dec are also back to host again.

What happened to David Walliams?

Comedian and children’s author David Walliams spent 10 successful years on the judging panel, but has left under a cloud ahead of the 2023 series.

In November 2022, The Guardian revealed a leaked audio recording from the show’s 2020 auditions in which he was heard making insulting remarks about contestants.

Walliams was heard referring to one contestant as a “c***” and said of another woman auditioning: “She’s like the slightly boring girl you meet in the pub that thinks you want to f*** them, but you don’t.”

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Read more: All the winners of Britain’s Got Talent so far

He apologised, saying: “I would like to apologise to the people I made disrespectful comments about during breaks in filming for Britain’s Got Talent in 2020.

“These were private conversations and — like most conversations with friends — were never intended to be shared. Nevertheless, I am sorry.”

Who won Britain’s Got Talent 2022?

The winner of the last series was comedian Axel Blake.

He was a popular winner, but controversy hit when it emerged that Blake had already made an Amazon Prime Video special of his stand-up routine – calling into question whether he could be classed as an amateur.

Defending his appearance on the streaming service in an interview on Lorraine, Blake said: “I put that show on myself and I just put my money where my mouth is and I achieved that. That’s the thing, it looks like ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Amazon Prime.’ But if they saw the backend, it didn’t look like that financially. All the stress, I had to borrow money from people.”

He added: “After that, Amazon picked it up. It wasn’t for Amazon Prime. I didn’t know they were going to pick that up, and that was like a year later.”

Simon Cowell also backed him, saying: “I know you got a bit of stick in the media – ‘It’s a fix because you’ve been on another show.’ That’s the whole point of shows like this, that you give someone another chance.”