ITV have announced a huge schedule shake-up as Britain’s Got Talent has been dropped this weekend.
The talent competition show has been taken off-air this Saturday and replaced by the Six Nations Live rugby coverage.
France will be taking on England, with coverage beginning at 7:20pm on ITV1 and kick-off at 8:10pm, which is when BGT would normally be on air.
Series 19 of the hit show began in February and so far three rounds of auditions have aired for fans to watch.
As fans eagerly wait to see even more acts take to the stage in two weeks’ time, they’ll be overjoyed to know that BGT will be on air until at least 2028.
It was revealed this week that bosses have signed a £120million deal to stay on ITV for another two years.
There is also another Champions Special lined up that will see the best global acts compete next year.
The series, which last year expanded to run over three months, has had huge success, including being watched 27 billion times online since starting in 2007.
This current run has already had 317 million views in various forms across multiple platforms, and BGT now has 51 million followers online.
A TV insider said of the deal: “This is a huge vote of confidence in the show, which celebrated the best week of overnight ratings for this series at the weekend.
“It also proved TV execs are looking beyond traditional viewing figures when making strategic decisions.
“Shows like Strictly have seen live viewing figures decline in recent years.
“They haven’t seen that compensated by viewers switching to other ways of watching, whereas BGT’s figures for streaming and on platforms such as YouTube have gone through the roof.”
Simon Cowell and production partner Fremantle will take the show beyond its 20th anniversary next year, with judges Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and KSI expected to return.
KSI has millions of online followers and helped boost the viewing levels since joining the panel last year.
Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions will be a future highlight.
It has not been staged since 2019, when acts from various “Got Talent” shows around the world came together to compete.
The event in front of 10,000 people at Wembley Arena, which was won by dance act Twist And Pulse, is expected to be matched when it returns.
