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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Katherine Heslop

Britain's Got Talent spin-off to bring back magicians to compete in one-off spectacular

A brand new Britain's Got Talent spin-off is on the way- and it's set to be spellbinding.

Simon Cowell is working on a one-off show dedicated to the most memorable magicians who have appeared on the talent contest and it's many versions across the globe.

The extravaganza will see 10 acts battle it out to become the ultimate worldwide champion of magic, and win a hefty £50,000 cash prize.

The show will be filmed in front of a live audience in Birmingham and will be produced by Thames for ITV.

Bosses are still working on a line-up for the yet-to-be named TV special, but favourites invited back could include Marc Spelmann and Richard Jones.

Marc Spelmann competed on BGT in 2018, and is one of the show's most memorable magicians (Tom Dymond/Thames/Syco/REX/Shutterstock)

Proud army-man Richard won season 10 of the show in 2016 and went on to compete in The Champions spin-off in 2019.

Marc reached the semi-finals in 2018 and received Ant & Dec's Golden Buzzer, later appearing on America's Got Talent: The Champions in 2020.

We could also see the return of Junwoo, who competed in this year's season of BGT, leaving many viewers in disbelief over his sleight of hand tricks.

Junwoo, then 23, had travelled almost 20 hours from South Korea to audition in front of Simon and co.

Richard Jones won BGT back in 2019 (ITV)

Other magicians who could be impressing the live audience in the spin-off spectacular are John Archer, Jamie Raven and Matt Edwards, among others.

Britain's Got Talent first launched in 2007 on ITV, and continues to be presented by Ant & Dec. Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan were the original judges, with David Walliams and Alesha Dixon sitting on the panel since 2012.

Speaking about why he hadn't really changed the format ahead of the latest season, Simon told The Radio Times: "Look, I don’t sit there on a Saturday night and watch, but occasionally I might see a bit of it.

"They’ve done a brilliant job. Like BGT, it hasn’t really changed. That’s a great lesson: when you’ve got something that works, don’t tinker with it.”

Simon also confessed to The Mirror and other press that he had worried the rise of things like TikTok and Instagram would mean the show had to come to an end.

Explaining his concern, Simon - who is also behind The X Factor and America's Got Talent - said he worried people wouldn't come on the show and instead would just use things like social media to grow their platform.

The BGT judges in this year's final (Dymond/Thames/REX/Shutterstock)

However, he says he has actually seen an increase in those applying for the show.

Speaking to The Mirror and other press, he said: "I was thinking a few years ago, with all these social media platforms, because you've got so many different areas now for you to become famous.

"I was wondering, does that mean they're not going to come on our show anymore. But, weirdly it's gone the other way. If you've got a social media following, they then consider - not everyone, but a lot of people - they now consider coming on a show like this as a next platform."

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