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Britain’s Got Talent offers refund after finale misled viewers

Doggie-double switcheroo will cost ITV after UK regulator rules viewers were likely to have been misled.

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Britain’s Got Talent has offered to refund viewers who made phone votes for the winning act in its most recent season, after it was discovered a stunt dog double Chase had replaced another, Matisse, in a winning tightrope walk act.

UK regulator OfCom investigated after complaints the show had not declared a switcheroo for its finale.

A report found: “We considered that, although the Licensee may not have intended to deceive viewers, the presentation of the act ‘Jules O’Dwyer & Matisse’ not only had the potential to mislead, but was likely to have done so.”

ITV had argued that “most viewers would accept that this was a simple mistake of omission by the production team” and “did not constitute any inadequacy or failure in the broadcaster’s compliance processes, or any unfairness or negligence in the operation of the vote that would thereby invalidate that vote or its outcome”.

But ITV also received 4.5 million votes, mostly through a free phone app, with 22.6% of those going to Matisse and his owner. There were 1,175 complaints.

On its website ITV and BGT co-producers Thames and Syco Entertainment have agreed that viewers who voted for the winning act by a paid voting route (ie by landline or mobile, but not via the BGT app) may wish to seek a refund of the cost incurred in voting, or may wish for the entirety of those costs to be donated to charity (in this case the Royal Variety Charity, which already receives 15p from each BGT phone vote).

It could leave them open to paying up to £50,000 ($AU105,600) to viewers, in line with the number of fans who chose to pay to vote at 50p each via phone or text.

The show aired in Australia on GO!

Source: Telegraph

3 Responses

  1. Second time a dog act won the show. Even Daily Mail commentors think OFCOM got this one wrong – the dog had been a visible part of the act earlier in the week and the act was about telling stories, not tightroping dogs.

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