Reflecting on a Record Breaking Series

June 1, 2009

When the ratings figures came in this morning for last night’s final, I had to check them four times through my bleary eyes (the after-show party was long and lugubrious).

The peak audience during the results show was an astonishing 19.2 million. That is the biggest figure for any TV show this millennium, by miles.

And it proves that this series of Britain’s Got Talent was the biggest, the best, and the most truly global reality show in TV history.

Ever since Susan Boyle’s audition clip roared around the internet seven weeks ago, the show grabbed the fascination of the whole world.

And, as I said on the show last night, it’s so good to have something that shows off the best of Britain, after all the damage our politicians and bankers have done to this country’s reputation in the last few months.

As for the finale itself, words almost (only almost, mind…) fail me.

It was one of the most stunning events I can ever remember.

Every act performed superbly, and collectively they represented an almost perfect snapshot of what real Britain is like - creative, imaginative, dynamic, funny, eccentric, and patriotic.

I was rooting for Susan Boyle, and make no apologies for doing so.

To me, she has been the greatest discovery the show’s ever found. And I’m only sorry that the extraordinary tidal wave of publicity she attracted meant so many people got either bored or irritated by Boyle mania and decided not to vote for her as a result.

I genuinely believe that if she had been on one of the later audition shows, rather than the first one, she would have won easily.

Showbusiness is a fickle business, and the reality TV end of it even more so.

The British, and I’m as guilty as everyone else, like nothing better than building people up, and knocking ‘em down again.

But the good news for Susan is that we also have a tendency to feel sorry (and slightly guilty) for people after the ‘backlash’, and they usually end up even more popular than they were before.

I thought she sang absolutely beautifully last night. Which given that she told me she’d spent most of the week crying, throwing up, not sleeping and generally feeling the weight of the world’s pressures on her, was a remarkable achievement.

To the cynics and critics who sneered at her, I simply ask: why?

It wasn’t Susan’s fault that she became this global phenomenon.

It was OUR fault. We, the public and the media, who latched onto her amazing audition performance and decided she was the woman to lift us all out of our doom and gloom.

I was incredibly proud of Susan last night, and was bemused to wake up to the headlines all screaming ‘END OF THE DREAM’ this morning.

Susan’s dream was not to win a talent show. It was to have a professional singing career.

And now she’s going to have one. I predict she will have a huge selling album out in a few months, and more to follow.

Britain’s Got Talent has been a rollercoaster ride for her, but it has also allowed her to live, and realise, her dream.

Coming second may just be the best thing that ever happens to her. She can now focus on recording an album without all the added pressure and attention she would have got for winning the show.

As for Diversity, they were brilliant last night, and thoroughly deserve to win. I can’t think of better role models than this dazzlingly talented, polite, humble, group of true Brits.

I feel for Flawless though. It’s not easy going first in the final, and I honestly thought they were just as good as Diversity. I hope they, too, go on to have a successful career because they deserve it.

As for me, I’m having a day off today and intend to do absolutely nothing whatsoever.

It’s been the craziest, most draining, mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting week of my life.

But in a few weeks, I’ve got to do and do it all again on America’s Got Talent.

No rest for the wicked.

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