Amanda Holden: Britain’s Got Talent needs live audience

Amanda Holden says she is glad Britain’s Got Talent has been postponed amid the pandemic because the show needed a live audience.

Producers had planned to record the 15th series later this month before announcing it would be pushed back.

Holden said the hit show did not work so well without an audience behind the judges, watching the acts as they audition.

She said: “We need you guys… we call them the fifth judge and it just makes no sense not to have them behind us.”

Asked about the decision, she said on her Heart Breakfast show: “I’m delighted.

“I think it affects the show and it affects the quality of the show… so I would rather wait and make it the best it can be and put it on in the autumn.”

Watch: Amanda Holden says Simon Cowell WILL return to Britain's Got Talent in 2021

A Christmas Day Britain’s Got Talent recently featured all four Britain’s Got Talent judges – Alesha Dixon, David Walliams, Amanda Holden and Ashley Banjo – perform after Banjo replaced an injured Simon Cowell on the 2020 panel.

Holden said of the postponement: “I’ll miss Simon though. It will be nearly two years since I’ve actually touched him!”

An ITV spokesman said: “With the announcement of the latest Government health guidelines and with our priority of safeguarding the wellbeing of everyone involved in our programmes we, together with the production teams at Thames and Syco, have taken the decision to move the record and broadcast of the forthcoming series.”

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Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden airs weekdays from 6.30am to 10am.