Britain’s Got Talent in major controversy as fans spot four clues that last semi-final result was ‘fixed’
BRITAIN’S Got Talent has been branded a ‘fix’ by furious fans who are convinced the last semi-final of the week was rigged.
Viewers were left shouting at their telly screens as comedian Alex Mitchell and magician Trixy each landed a place in the final.
Alex, who has autism, was put straight through to Sunday night’s live finale show after receiving the most public votes.
Trixy, meanwhile, was given a place in the final by judges – and fans are not happy.
Here are the clues that viewers claim point towards the result being ‘fixed’ in Trixy’s favour.
In on the act
Trixy wowed the judges, the live studio audience and millions of viewers at home with his semi-final audition.
He told everyone to open up their calculator in their mobile phone before asking the judges each to pick certain numbers at random.
Bruno Tonioli was asked what time he woke up this morning. The Italian judge replied: “8.45am.”
Trixy told the crowd to punch 845 into their calculators before he asked Alesha Dixon how many people were in the studio audience.
She guessed “3,000”, so Trixy told everyone to add 3,000 to 845.
Amanda Holden‘s bedtime of 1.04am (104) was also added while host Declan Donnelly was asked to come up with a random six digit number.
Trixy instructed everyone to press the equals button, which gave an answer of 315, 823. He read it out at exactly 8.23pm on 31 May.
But while the majority of fans were left gobsmacked, some are certain that Dec had to be ‘in’ on the act.
Writing on X, one said: “Trixy, it’s not magic when Dec is in on it giving the specific number that’s needed to make today’s date. Old trick using a specific app to give you the number needed.”
Another added: “Trixy for example, that wasn’t actual magic. its numbers (which dec had an earpiece in for).”
Slip of the tongue
Alesha Dixon was left red-faced during Trixy’s act after he exposed her ‘live’ performance on the show as being pre-recorded.
The star was the last celebrity performer of the semi-finals week and she was due to sing her new song Ransom at the end of the show.
But just 20 minutes into the two-hour long instalment, Trixy said to her: “Alesha, loved your performance by the way.”
Alesha awkwardly replied “thank you”, before giggling nervously, and fans quickly shared the blunder on X.
However, following his calculator trick, some viewers are questioning whether it was Trixy’s act that was pre-recorded – not Alesha’s.
One viewer said: “What if Trixy was accidentally revealing his trick was pre-recorded, not Alesha’s performance all along?
“Maybe he thought her performance would have already aired by the time his trick was played at exactly 8.23pm?”
‘Even’ vote
Comedian Alex Mitchell was put straight through to Sunday’s final while the judges were left choosing between Trixy and blind musicians Denise and Stefan.
Bruno was first up and he chose to save Denise and Stefan.
Alesha was next and described it as a “nightmare”. She eventually settled on Trixy, as did Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell.
But some fans found themselves scratching their heads over a comment Alesha made as she cast her vote.
Alesha had said she was picking Trixy to ‘balance out’ the votes after Bruno had chosen Alex.
This then made it easy for Amanda and Simon to ensure he went through to the final by each voting for him, which gave him a majority.
One fan has posted a gif reading ‘It was fixed!’ and alongside it wrote: “Alesha said ‘I’m going to balance it out and pick Trixy‘ and then the last two pick Trixy.”
Word up
There is a final clue that only viewers who were watching with subtitles might have caught on to during Friday night’s show.
Some fans spotted that the subtitles were bang on time with what was coming out of the judges’ and Ant and Dec‘s mouths.
Often, when a show is live, there will be a delay as professional respeakers will repeat what is being said into a speech recognition machine, which will then translate it into subtitles.
But there was apparently no delay in the latest episode.
“I’m 99% sure this act is a fix because the subtitles are preloaded, if it was live they’d be on a delay,” one fan said.
Britain’s Got Talent will now take a break on Saturday night before returning to ITV for the live final on Sunday at 7.30pm.
Britain's Got Talent's biggest 'fix' rows
Britain's Got Talent has been plagued with 'fix' rows over the years. How many of these do you remember?
Jasmine Elcock – 2016: Teenage singer Jasmine Elcock stunned the nation with her version of Cher’s Believe. But it then transpired she had already performed professionally in London’s West End. Jasmine, 14, admitted: “I’ve performed in Annie in the West End at about the age of nine or 10, but I really get nervous.”
IrShad Shaikh – 2017: BGT fans were left questioning the rule book when IrShad Shaikh auditioned. He got four red buzzers from the judges, which would usually mean an instant dismissal. Yet in a strange turn of events, they let him continue with his act…and put him through to the next round.
Colin Thackery – 2019: Elderly war veteran Colin won BGT in 2019, but there was an outcry over the final. He warbled his place to win with a version of We’ll Meet Again but fans were furious that escapologist Jonathan Goodwin didn’t even rank in the top three. Viewers felt Jonathan – who almost suffocated while being buried alive in a gravel pit – should have won.
Axel Blake – 2022: Comedian Axel Blake was given a Golden Buzzer in 2022 after making the judges laugh. But fans were fuming when they discovered Axel already had a show on worldwide streaming platform Amazon Prime. Despite this, Axel still went on to win the series.
Loren Allred – 2022: The 2022 series of BGT was hit with another controversy when singer Loren Allred also received a Golden Buzzer. She performed Never Enough from the smash hit musical movie The Greatest Showman and got a standing ovation. It later transpired Loren was actually the original voice behind the track.
Taryn Charles – 2024: Singer Taryn Charles is one of this year’s hopefuls lucky enough to receive the Golden Buzzer. Bruno Tonilio put her straight through to the semi-finals following her performance of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin, but it has now come to light that she is no stranger to TV. Viewers recognised Taryn from an episode of ITV1’s Starstruck, where she impersonated Whitney Houston for judges Olly Murs, Sheridan Smith, Adam Lambert and Beverley Knight.