The new series of Britain’s Got Talent will air from next week, it has been announced.
The ITV competition programme will return to screens on Saturday April 11 at 8pm, with judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, David Walliams and Alesha Dixon presiding over the pre-recorded auditions.
The broadcaster previously confirmed that live finals of the show, due to be hosted by Ant and Dec, will be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Confirmed: Britain's Got Talent returns Saturday 11 April at 8pm on ITV #bgt @antanddec pic.twitter.com/AD3traHYHl
— ITV Press Centre (@itvpresscentre) April 1, 2020
They will be broadcast at a date yet to be set later in the year.
“We have been working… to find a way of making the live finals work, which were due to be broadcast at the end of May,” ITV said in a statement last month.
“However, in light of the latest Government health guidelines and in line with our priority of safeguarding the well-being of everyone involved in our programmes, production of the live shows cannot go ahead as planned.
“The live finals will therefore be broadcast later in the year.”
The auditions were filmed earlier this year before social distancing measures were put in place by the Government to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Last week Holden said that the postponement of the live finals was “for the best”, despite Ant and Dec hosting their show Saturday Night Takeaway without a live audience.
She said on Heart Breakfast: “I think that Ant and Dec did an amazing job of Takeaway on Saturday but I’m not sure our show, I think our show would suffer quite badly from not having a proper audience.”
Holden said that the live shows may air in the autumn, adding: “I would say it might be later than September but it’s quite a competitive time of year as well so, I’m hoping we can still strip it – strip means we do it every single day like we used to, or we might end up doing it over the weekends, but it’s all still in the running but I definitely think it’s for the best.”
She added: “Audition shows are definitely coming and they are better than ever, so I hope everyone loves that and can cheer up by watching that.”