Britain's Got Talent have stayed defiant against accusations that contestant Nick Edwards audition was 'completely staged,' rather than him being oblivious to the fact he was part of a new audition twist brought in for the new series.
As teased by hosts Ant and Dec in the run to the show's return over Easter weekend, producers have brought in the Golden Moments twist to auditions this year, where a member of the public is plucked from the audience and then told they need to prepare to perform in front of the judges. Millions of viewers got their first look at the twist coming into play on Saturday's show when little girls Savannah and Cali walked on stage with their nan Tracey, much to the surprise of their dad Nick Edwards in the audience. Tracey revealed that she had applied for the show as Nick would never have done it himself, as he looked on staggered from his seat in the packed theatre.
While Nick appeared genuinely taken aback by what was happening to him, Britain's Got Talent viewers thought they smelt a rat, as Nick was clocked wearing a microphone on his set, with them also pointing out it was rather 'convenient,' his guitar was at hand for him to play. However, speaking to The Mirror, a BGT spokesperson shut down the claims, saying: "We loved welcoming back our BGT viewers back last night after a year away. To report or allude to anything being staged or contrived regarding Nick's audition would be false and incorrect.
Quite simply, when Nick entered the Palladium auditorium during BGT auditions, he was approached to be part of our ‘gogglebox’ audience and told he would be mic'd up so we could capture his reactions throughout the day as he sat in the audience. He was totally unsuspecting. We did this so we could mic him up without him suspecting a thing".
Britain's Got Talent addressed Nick's audition again in a social media post on Tuesday, when they posted a montage of images from Saturday night's audition show, including one of Nick and captioned the post: "What an incredible night, filled with shocks and SURPRISES We can't imagine how Nick must have felt waiting in the wings there!"
While some viewers weren't sure at all if Nick's audition was the huge surprise it was made out to be, others felt he shouldn't have just made it through to the next round, but got the Golden Buzzer. One fan tweeted: "What a performance!!! What a man!! If only every dad treasured their kids as much as this guy." Another, weighing in on the controversy surrounding Greatest Showman singer Loren Allred getting the first Golden Buzzer of the series, reacted: "Loren Allred is a great singer but shouldn’t be on #bgt she’s already listed on Wikipedia as being the golden buzzer on @BGT _UK she is already worth $2m and sung with some credible artists ….. tonight’s buzzer should have been for Nick Edwards."
