Britain's Got Talent series 2

The second series of British talent competition programme Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV, from 12 April to 31 May 2008. Following the success of its first series, ITV commissioned the programme for additional episodes, with more venues used for auditions than in the previous series, and the number of semi-finalists, semi-final rounds, and finalists increased by production staff. Both the judges from the first series – Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan – and Ant & Dec returned to co-host the second series, along with Stephen Mulhern returning to front the second series of Britain's Got More Talent on ITV2.

Britain's Got Talent
Series 2
Hosted by	Ant & Dec (ITV) Stephen Mulhern (ITV2)
Judges	Piers Morgan Amanda Holden Simon Cowell
Winner	George Sampson
Runner-up	Signature
Release
Original network	ITV ITV2 (BGMT)
Original release	12 April (2008-04-12) – 31 May 2008 (2008-05-31)
Series chronology
List of episodes

Judges and Presenter(s) for Britain's Got Talent Series 2

Piers Morgan

Amanda Holden

Simon Cowell

Ant & Dec (ITV1)

Stephen Mulhern (ITV2)

The second series was won by street dancer George Sampson,^[1] with dance duo Signature finishing in second place and opera singer Andrew Johnston third. During its broadcast, the series proved to be a greater ratings success, averaging 10.2 million viewers.^[2] ITV was forced to defend the programme during its second series, after viewers criticised the involvement of a professional group in the contest.

Series overview

Following open auditions held the previous year, the Judge's Auditions took place early in 2008, within London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Blackpool. With the success of the previous series, the production team decided to expand the show's filming schedule to include more episodes. This led to the addition of two more episodes for auditions and two more live episodes for semi-finals, in turn leading to a direct increase in the number of semi-finalists that the judges could move beyond the auditions stage of the competition. Both the judges and the presenters who took part in the first series agreed to return for the second series, leading to no significant changes in the panel or hosts.

Of the participants that took part, only forty made it past this stage and into the five live semi-finals,^[3] 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 |   Runner-Up |   Finalist |   Semi-finalist

Participant	Age(s) 1	Genre	Act	Semi-Final	Result
Andrew Johnston	13	Singing	Boy Soprano	2	Third Place
Andrew Muir	24	Singing	Singer	4	Finalist
Anya Sparks	42	Dance	Dancer	5	Eliminated
Bang On!	34 & 27	Music	Percussion Duo	2	Eliminated
Boogie Babes	8–12	Dance	Dance Group	4	Eliminated
Boogie Wonderland	12–21	Dance	Dance Group	1	Eliminated
Caburlesque	22-26	Dance	Dance Group	5	Eliminated
Charlie Green	10	Singing	Singer	3	Eliminated
Charlie Wernham	13	Comedy	Comedian	4	Eliminated
Cheeky Monkeys	8 & 9	Dance	Junior Dance Duo	2	Finalist
Craig Harper	35	Singing / Comedy	Vocal Impressionist	5	Eliminated
Dean Wilson	18	Singing	Musical Theatre Singer	1	Eliminated
Deans of Magic	46 & 38	Magic	Erotic Magic Duo	3	Eliminated
Diva Las Vegas	20-48	Singing / Dance	Singer & Dance Group	5	Eliminated
Escala	23–26	Music	String Quartet	5	Finalist
Faryl Smith	12	Singing	Singer	4	Finalist
Flava	17–28	Dance	Hip Hop Dance Group	2	Eliminated
George Sampson	14	Dance	Breakdancer	3	Winner
Harlequin Stage School	8–13	Dance	Irish Dance Group	4	Eliminated
Hoop La La	22, 23 & 24	Variety	Hula Hoop Trio	3	Eliminated
Iona Luvsandorj	27	Acrobatics	Contortionist	2	Eliminated
Irresistible	21–23	Singing	Singing Trio	3	Eliminated
James Stone	52	Singing	Singer	4	Eliminated
Jeremy Lynch	20	Variety	Football Freestyler	4	Eliminated
Kate & Gin	16 & 6 2	Animals	Dog Act	1	Finalist
Kay & Harvey	56 & 71	Singing / Music	Singer & Keyboardist	2	Eliminated
Madonna Decena	32	Singing	Singer	5	Eliminated
Mandy Ellen Dancers	10–24	Dance	Dance Group	2	Eliminated
Mary Halford March	6–9	Dance	Dance Group	3	Eliminated
Michael Machell	57	Music	Keyboardist	1	Eliminated
Nemesis	18–22	Dance	Hip Hop Dance Group	5	Finalist
Per Diem	24 & 23	Singing / Music	Singing & Guitarist Duo	5	Eliminated
Phil Blackmore	34	Danger	Balancer & Juggler	1	Eliminated
Sauris Nandi	64	Magic	Magician	2	Eliminated
Signature	29 & 34	Dance	Bhangra Dance Duo	1	Runner-Up
Sophie Mei	20	Dance	Belly Dancer	1	Eliminated
Strike	22 & 19	Variety	Martial Arts Duo	3	Finalist
Tracey Lee Collins	44	Singing	Drag Singer	1	Eliminated
Urban Gypsies	35–50	Dance	Belly Dance Group	3	Eliminated
Vizage	34 & 30	Singing / Magic	Singer & Quick Change Duo	4	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 (26 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
Boogie Wonderland	1				Eliminated
Kate & Gin	2				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
Michael Machell	3				Eliminated
Dean Wilson	4				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Sophie Mei	5				Eliminated
Tracey Lee Collins	6				Eliminated
Phil Blackmore	7				Eliminated
Signature	8				Advanced (Won Public Vote)

Semi-final 2 (27 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
Mandy Ellen Dancers	1				Eliminated
Iona Luvsandorj	2				Eliminated
Cheeky Monkeys	3				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
Kay & Harvey	4				Eliminated
Bang On!	5				Eliminated
Flava	6				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Sauris Nandi	7				Eliminated
Andrew Johnston	8				Advanced (Won Public Vote)

Semi-final 3 (28 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
Irresistible	1				Eliminated
Strike	2				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
Mary Halford March	3				Eliminated
The Deans of Magic	4				Eliminated
Charlie Green	5				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Urban Gypsies	6				Eliminated
Hoop La La	7				Eliminated
George Sampson	8				Advanced (Won Public Vote)

Semi-final 4 (29 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
James Stone	1				Eliminated
Charlie Wernham	2				Eliminated
Harlequin Stage School	3				Eliminated
Andrew Muir	4				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
The Boogie Babes	5				Eliminated
Vizage	6		3		Eliminated
Jeremy Lynch	7				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Faryl Smith	8				Advanced (Won Public Vote)

• ^3 Cowell pressed Holden's buzzer during Vizage's performance.

Semi-final 5 (30 May)

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote			Result
		Cowell	Holden	Morgan
Caburlesque	1				Eliminated
Madonna Decena	2				Eliminated
Anya Sparks	3				Eliminated
Craig Harper	4				Eliminated (Lost Judges' Vote)
Diva Las Vegas	5				Eliminated
Nemesis	6				Advanced (Won Judges' Vote)
Per Diem	7				Eliminated
Escala	8				Advanced (Won Public Vote)

Final (31 May)

  Winner |   Runner-up

Finalist	Order	Finished 4
Cheeky Monkeys	1	Finalist
Andrew Muir	2	Finalist
Kate & Gin	3	Finalist
Nemesis	4	Finalist
Strike	5	Finalist
Andrew Johnston	6	3rd
George Sampson	7	1st
Faryl Smith	8	Finalist
Escala	9	Finalist
Signature	10	2nd

• ^4 The results did not declare any other position than that of the winner, 2nd place, and 3rd place.

Ratings

Main article: List of Britain's Got Talent episodes

Episode	Air Date	Total Viewers (millions)[4]	ITV 1 Weekly rank[4]	Viewer Share
Auditions 1	12 April	9.44	6	37.0%[5]
Auditions 2	19 April	10.96	1	43.3%[6]
Auditions 3	26 April	9.86	3	41.3%[7]
Auditions 4	3 May	9.12	5	39.1%[8]
Auditions 5	10 May	8.17	6	37.9%[9]
Auditions 6	17 May	9.11	2	37.5%[10]
Auditions 7	24 May	8.27	5	37.2%[11]
Semi-final 1	26 May	11.33	4	42.0%[12]
Semi-final 2	27 May	9.29	9	35.3%[13]
Semi-final 3	28 May	10.03	6	35.9%[14]
Semi-final 4	29 May	10.13	5	41.9%[15]
Semi-final 5	30 May	11.86	2	50.0%[16]
Live final	31 May	11.52	3	51.1%[17]
Live final results		13.88	1	55.1%[17]

Criticism

The second series of Britain's Got Talent faced criticism for the involvement of professional performers in the contest. Media outlets revealed evidence that the group Escala, who took part in the contest in 2008, had previously been involved as guest performers for a wrap party on The X Factor in 2007. ITV refuted allegations that this was unfair conduct against other participants, by arguing that the programme's researchers applied the same process and treatment to everyone who auditioned, and that the contest was open to anyone regardless of their experience with the talent they chose to perform with.^[18]