The first ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ live semi-final ran into some technical difficulties on Monday night when it fell off the air for over ten minutes.
Heavy storms in west London caused viewers’ screens to plunge into darkness just after the first act had finished performing.
Bosses were unable to sort the problem immediately and had to flick to an on-screen apology, explaining there was a disruption.
However, after five minutes off-air, an announcer explained they would instead air highlights from the auditions - although they even seemed to have some difficulty loading the footage, as it took a number of minutes before the highlights package appeared on screen.
After over 10 minutes of chaos and confusion, the show finally reappeared, with presenter Declan Donnelly telling viewers: “The weather here in London has caused a few technical difficulties which meant some of part one didn’t reach you at home. All going well so far guys!”
Simon Cowell then quipped that absent co-host Ant McPartlin could have been responsible, joking: “Ant, you are coming back next year, you didn’t have to do that!”
The whole episode had viewers on Twitter in stitches:
For the first time ever, the ‘BGT’ live shows are not coming from a TV studio, and have moved to the Hammersmith Apollo.
As it is not purpose-built for live broadcasts, it is likely this could have had an impact on the show’s capability of staying on air during the heavy rain, thunder and lightning that Hammersmith experienced.
