Britain's Got Talent series 9

Judges and Presenter(s) for Britain's Got Talent Series 9

David Walliams

Alesha Dixon

Amanda Holden

Simon Cowell

Ant & Dec(ITV1)

Stephen Mulhern(ITV2)

The ninth series of the British talent competition programme Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV, from 11 April to 31 May 2015. The series saw the "Wildcard" format introduced in the sixth series being modified in this series to include a "Public Wildcard" – like the "Judges' Wildcard" any act eliminated in the semi-finals, primarily those that lost out in the Judges' vote, could be reinstated by the public, based on the one that received the most votes from them before the final. Although speculations and rumours began to emerge after the previous series ended, claiming that some of the judges would be leaving before the ninth series,^[1][2] these were later dismissed as being unfounded by ITV, on 16 January 2015.^[3]

The ninth series was won by dog tricks duo Jules O'Dwyer & Matisse, with magician Jamie Raven finishing in second place and Welsh choir Côr Glanaethwy third. During its broadcast, the series averaged around 9.9 million viewers. The ninth series saw the programme have to answer allegations of animal cruelty against a ventriloquist, while the producers caused controversy over the handling of O'Dwyer's performance in the final that Ofcom later ruled to have been misleading following complaints by viewers.^[4]

Following open auditions held the previous year between October and December,^[5] the Judges' auditions took place between January and February 2015, within Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and London.,^[6] Unlike previous years, where a guest judge had to stand-in for another, no issues occurred that caused a member of the judging panel to be absent, while the auditions were held in a more standard manner for this year, though with the "Golden Buzzer" format remaining part of them since its introduction to the show in the previous series.

Of the participants that took part, forty-five made it past this stage and into the five live semi-finals – of these acts, dance troupe Boyband, singer Calum Scott, choir Revelation Avenue, dance act Entity Allstars, and comedy singer Lorraine Bowen, each received a golden buzzer during their auditions – with nine appearing in each one. In a minor change to the show's "Wildcard act" format, the series saw the introduction of the "Public Wildcard". Like the "Judges' wildcard", if a semi-finalist was eliminated in their semi-final at the Judges' vote, they became eligible to be picked as a wildcard act by the public, who would vote on which one they would like to reinstate into the final once all the semi-finals had been aired, with their choice being the one to have received the most votes by the time the final was due to be aired. While the Public Wildcard was extreme martial artist Jesse-Jane McParland, who lost out in the tied Judges' vote in the final semi-final, the Judges' Wildcard for this series was dance troupe Boyband, who lost the Judges' vote in the fourth semi-final. As a result, it led to a total of twelve acts taking part in the series' final.

The below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this series:

  Winner |   Runner-up |   Finalist |   Semi-finalist

Judges' Wildcard Finalist | Public Wildcard Finalist | Golden Buzzer Audition

Participant	Age(s) 1	Genre	Act	Semi-final	Result
Alison Jiear	50	Singing	Singer	2	Eliminated
Andrew Fleming	51	Comedy	Impressionist	1	Eliminated
Beat Brothers	19–23	Dance	Tap Dance Group	5	Eliminated
Becky O'Brien	34	Singing	Singer	1	Eliminated
Billy & Emily England	28 & 25	Danger	Rollerskating Duo	1	Eliminated
Bonetics	17	Acrobatics / Dance	Contortionist Dancer	2	Eliminated
Boyband	17–19	Dance	Dance Group	4	Finalist
Calum Scott	26	Singing	Singer	5	Finalist
Chloe Louise Crawford	27	Magic	Illusionist	5	Eliminated
Côr Glanaethwy	7–65	Singing	Choir	1	Finalist
Danny Posthill	28	Comedy	Impressionist	5	Finalist
Dylan Byrd	17	Dance	Hip Hop Dancer	3	Eliminated
Ella Shaw	18	Singing	Singer	3	Eliminated
Emma Jones	23	Singing	Opera Singer	5	Eliminated
Entity Allstars	10–15	Dance	Street Dance Group	1	Finalist
Gracie Wickens-Sweet	11	Singing	Singer	3	Eliminated
Groove Thing	7–11	Dance	Dance Group	2	Eliminated
Henry Gallagher	12	Singing / Music	Singer & Guitarist	1	Eliminated
IMD Legion	9–17	Dance	Street Dance Group	3	Eliminated
Isaac Waddington	15	Singing / Music	Singer & Pianist	4	Finalist
Jamie Raven	31	Magic	Close Up Magician	3	Runner-Up
Jeffrey Drayton	73	Magic	Entertainer	4	Eliminated
Jesse-Jane McParland	9	Acrobatics	Martial Artist	5	Finalist
Jonathan Lutwyche	15	Dance	Contemporary Dancer	5	Eliminated
Jules O'Dwyer & Matisse	49 & 7 2	Animals	Dog Act	2	Winner
Lisa Sampson	35	Variety	Hula Hoop Artist	4	Eliminated
Lorraine Bowen	53	Singing / Music	Singer & Keyboardist	1	Eliminated
Luca Calò	23	Singing / Dance	Singer & Dancer	2	Eliminated
Maia Gough	13	Singing	Singer	4	Eliminated
Marc Métral	61 2	Comedy / Animals	Ventriloquist & Dog Act	4	Eliminated
Michael Late	44	Magic	Magician	2	Eliminated
Misstasia	22–24	Singing	Singing Group	5	Eliminated
Mitch & Cally the Wonderdog	42 & 10 3	Animals	World Record Dog Act	1	Eliminated
Narinder Dhani	43	Music	Comb Musician	3	Eliminated
OK Worldwide	19–28	Acrobatics	Acrobatic Group	4	Eliminated
Old Men Grooving	40–60	Dance	Dance Group	2	Finalist
Peter Lambert	32	Variety	Circus Performer	5	Eliminated
Revelation Avenue	20–30	Singing	Gospel Choir	2	Eliminated
Ruby Red Performers	25–64	Dance	Burlesque Dance Group	1	Eliminated
The Honeybuns	22–33	Singing	Singing Group	2	Eliminated
The Kanneh-Masons	9–18	Music	Orchestra	4	Eliminated
The Kingdom Tenors	21–31	Singing	Singing Group	3	Eliminated
The Neales	24–59	Singing	Singing Group	4	Finalist
The Sakyi Five	10–20	Singing	Boy Band	3	Eliminated
UDI	19-32	Dance	Electronic Dance Group	3	Finalist

• ^1 Ages denoted for a participant(s), pertain to their final performance for this series.
• ^2 The age of the dogs used by Jules O'Dwyer, other than Matisse, and that of the dog used by Marc Metral, were not disclosed during their time on the programme.
• ^3 The latter value denotes the age of the dog, as disclosed by its owner.

Buzzed out | Judges' vote |   Won the public vote

  Won the judges' vote |   Lost the judges' vote |   Eliminated

• Guest performance: Ricky Martin ("Mr. Put It Down")

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote				Finished [7]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
Entity Allstars	1					3rd (Won Judges' vote)
Billy & Emily England	2					7th – Eliminated
Mitch & Cally the Wonderdog	3					5th – Eliminated
Henry Gallagher	4					2nd (Lost Judges' vote)
Côr Glanaethwy	5					1st (Won Public vote)
Ruby Red Performers	6					9th – Eliminated
Andrew Fleming	7					8th – Eliminated
Becky O'Brien	8					6th – Eliminated
Lorraine Bowen	9					4th – Eliminated

• Guest performance: Jack Pack ("Light My Fire")

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote				Finished [7]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
Groove Thing	1					4th – Eliminated
Jules O'Dwyer & Matisse	2					1st (Won Public vote)
Bonetics	3					5th – Eliminated
Revelation Avenue	4					3rd (Judges' vote tied – Lost on Public vote)
The HoneyBuns	5					6th – Eliminated
Michael Late	6					7th – Eliminated
Luca Calò	7					9th – Eliminated
Alison Jiear	8					8th – Eliminated
Old Men Grooving	9					2nd (Judges' vote tied – Won on Public vote)

• Guest performance: Alesha Dixon ("The Way We Are")

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote				Finished [7]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
The Sakyi Five	1					6th – Eliminated
UDI	2					2nd (Judges' vote tied – Won on Public vote)
Dylan Byrd	3					8th – Eliminated
Ella Shaw	4					7th – Eliminated
Gracie Wickens-Sweet	5					5th – Eliminated
IMD Legion	6					3rd (Judges' vote tied – Lost on Public vote)
Narinder Dhani	7					9th – Eliminated
The Kingdom Tenors	8					4th – Eliminated
Jamie Raven	9					1st (Won Public vote)

• Guest performance: Olly Murs ("Beautiful To Me")

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote				Finished [7]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
Ok Worldwide	1					9th – Eliminated
Lisa Sampson	2					7th – Eliminated
The Kanneh-Masons	3					5th – Eliminated
The Neales	4					2nd (Won Judges' vote)
Maia Gough	5					6th – Eliminated
Jeffrey Drayton	6					8th – Eliminated
Marc Métral	7					4th – Eliminated
Isaac Waddington	8					1st (Won Public vote)
Boyband 4	9					3rd (Lost Judges' vote)

• ^4 Boyband were later sent through to the final as the judges' wildcard.

• Guest performance: Collabro ("I Won't Give Up")

Semi-Finalist	Order	Buzzes and Judges' Vote				Finished [7]
		Cowell	Holden	Dixon	Walliams
Beat Brothers	1					6th – Eliminated
Chloe Louise Crawford	2					8th – Eliminated
Peter Lambert	3					9th – Eliminated
Misstasia	4					7th – Eliminated
Jonathan Lutwyche	5					4th – Eliminated
Emma Jones	6					5th – Eliminated
Danny Posthill	7					2nd (Judges' vote tied – Won on Public vote)
Jesse-Jane McParland 5	8					3rd (Judges' vote tied – Lost on Public vote)
Calum Scott	9					1st (Won Public vote)

• ^5 Jesse-Jane McParland was later sent through to the final as the public's wildcard.

• Guest performances: Andrea Bocelli ("The Prayer") & The Cast Of Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance

  Winner |   Runner-up

In April 2015, following the audition of Marc Métral, several animal rights groups raised complaints that his performance, involving the use of a dog, purported to portraying a form of animal cruelty on television.^[22] The routine he used involved his dog wearing a specially designed "ventriloquist mask" – a special device used by ventriloquists on human volunteers, in order to make them into special dummy character for their routines - and was conducted in a similar manner to that of a participant on the seventh series of America's Got Talent in 2012. Métral refuted the claims by stating that he cared deeply for the well-being of his dog,^[23] while Simon Cowell refuted the claims a month later, owing to his involvement in dog charities, defending the broadcast of the footage on Twitter by explaining that the audition was allowed to be shown because both himself and the production staff had involved the RSPCA to oversee the welfare of Métral's dog before, during, and after his performance.^[24]

The ninth series became notable for the controversy surrounding the performance of Jules O'Dwyer, and in particular the routine of her dog tricks act in the final. The nature of the complaint focused on the fact that while O'Dwyer had been clear that her occupation involved training and use multiple dogs for her routines, she hadn't disclosed the fact that she had to use two dogs with similar appearances for the final, as her main dog Matisse was unable to perform a trick involving a tightrope section. When this came to light in an interview the morning after the final on 1 June 2015, Ofcom were forced to launch an investigation after 1,000 complaints were raised by viewers who felt misled by the performance's broadcast.^[25][26]

Although no formal action was taken by the programme against O'Dwyer and producers, after Cowell launched his own investigation into the incident,^[27][28] an apology had to be issued for the confusion caused by the failure not to disclose this detail as clearly as possible.^[29][30] However, on 17 August, Ofcom found in their investigation that while there had been no intention to deceive viewers, both the production staff and ITV were responsible for allowing Britain's Got Talent to mislead people, and ruled that they had breached broadcasting codes that require television and radio programmes to not be misleading and present facts as accurately as possible.^{[31][32][4][33]}