Ant and Dec were left concerned about just how much gloating Simon Cowell would do after his golden buzzer act Axel Blake triumphed in one of the closest Britain's Got Talent finals in the show's history.
After a week of live semi finals, just 11 acts were left in the running to take the 2022 crown on the long-running ITV talent show, two from each heat plus an opinion dividing wild card, Amber and the Dancing Collies. Heading into Sunday's Britain's Got Talent, bookies odds were changing all the time but, with just hours to go they had busking opera singer Maxwell Thorpe as favourite.
He was just ahead of young comedian Eva Abley in the BGT winner odds but, at the end of a two and a half hour spectacle, which brought anguish for Alesha Dixon's act Flintz and Taylor over forgotten lyrics, neither Maxwell or Eva were in the top three, instead it was comedian Axel Blake, young ventriloquist Jamie Leahey and singer Tom Ball who were left in contention to the public vote.
READ MORE : Britain's Got Talent voting figures expose unexpected results
It was down to Ant and Dec to announce that Tom had finished third before they announced Axel as Britain's Got Talent winner. And, while like many people, the Geordie hosts were thrilled for Axel, Ant was quick to bemoan the fact he was Simon's golden buzzer act.
As Axel was coming to terms with what had just happened, Ant interviewed second place act Jamie, before telling champion Axel: "I'm thrilled that you won but, what's really going to get on my goat is that you're Simon Cowell's golden buzzer act....damn it!"
As Simon stood laughing at Ant's comment, the presenter: "He's going to be thrilled, well done pal, well done." Ant then couldn't resist making a quip at the judge, saying: "Here comes Simon, he loves coming on stage at the end of the show!"
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