What is the mysterious, shall we say, 'X factor'?
Britain's Got Talent has just begun its 18th series, and of all of the 'search for a star' formats that have dominated the British TV landscape since the millennium, it's one of only two that remain.
The other is The Voice UK, and there's a massive difference in their popularity. (The 18th series of BGT opened with an overnight figure of 4.6 million, Broadcast reports, while the 13th series of The Voice UK opened with 2.5 million in August 2024. Not to mention that Britain's Got Talent is likely to add a further 2 million to its total when catch-up figures are factored in.)
While those figures are significantly lower than they were ten years ago (when 10.1 million watched the opening episode), viewing habits have shifted significantly and BGT is still one of the biggest shows on television.
The X Factor, Pop Idol, Pop Stars: The Rivals, So You Think You Can Dance?, Fame Academy and many others all fell by the wayside. So what's the magic ingredient?
Although Britain's Got Talent's main focus is to find an act to perform at the annual Royal Variety Performance, it's made no secret of wanting to find acts able to represent Britain on the world stage. Susan Boyle, Paul Potts and Diversity all auditioned for the show, placed very highly and have managed to keep their profiles up over the years.
Britain's Got Talent does an excellent job of listening to its audience: it's reflected the general climate by moving away from the occasionally cruel nature of television in the 2000s, and the show celebrates a greater variety of acts than in its earlier years.
Singers and dancers were among the most popular acts in the first few series – it wasn't until series eight that a magic act made the final and series 12 that a comedy act won.
The X Factor, a show it was somewhat modelled upon, ran until 2019 and enjoyed a few years of greater popularity than BGT before rapidly sinking. Despite both programmes being made by the same production company (Syco Entertainment, back then), how was one managed significantly better than the other?
Simply, Britain's Got Talent has remained fun for the participants and the viewers, whereas The X Factor came in for much criticism even from its own fanbase.
Although both shows promised to change people's lives, it was never a guarantee. Neither show provided a career on a plate; no matter where contestants placed or how much money was thrown at them, it was still down to them to work extremely hard. That said, a two-minute viral clip showcasing your talent (which Britain's Got Talent provides in abundance) can still change an act's life.
It could be argued that TikTok, YouTube and other platforms, providing as they do the opportunity to film your talent in your own home, have replaced the talent show – but there's still the element of competition.
What Britain's Got Talent does, more than any other show of its kind, is give people a shot who would otherwise not have had one. Susan Boyle, Paul Potts, Jonathan & Charlotte, Diversity, Tokio Myers, Sydnie Christmas and many others would have likely otherwise not been able to showcase themselves and use the platform to their advantage in that way.
Earlier series of BGT (and The X Factor for that matter) were more rigid in their definition of success: it was about how many records the acts could sell. But the market has changed and with a wider definition of success – such as simply being able to make a living from performing – these shows have a lot more to shout about.
While they're entertainment shows first and foremost, viewers want to feel like the contestants are able to find some genuine, lasting success. That's what keeps audiences coming back and would-be stars willing to apply year after year.
