Britain’s Got Talent has officially confirmed the start date for the 2026 season, which is its 19th overall. The new batch of episodes will kick off in just 10 days, airing at 7pm on ITV1 and ITVX (and STV and STV Player in Scotland).
Ant & Dec are back hosting, while Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon are all judging once again.
This time around, KSI is stepping up to be a full-time judge after previously covering part-time for Bruno Tonioli.
Britain’s Got Talent: Unseen will follow straight after the main show on ITVX, and also air on ITV2 on Sundays.
Who will win the £250,000 cash prize and Royal Variety performance slot? While the judges decide who to put through — and the Golden Buzzer is back once again — the ultimate decision is solely in in the hands of the Great British public.
Tom Dymond//ITV
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Although Ant & Dec have remained with the show since it first started in 2007, they recently admitted that they almost stepped down from it a while back, until a chat with Simon Cowell convinced them to stay.
“We went to LA to see him to tell him we were going to leave Britain’s Got Talent because we weren’t having a very nice time,” Dec recalled on the Stick to Football podcast.
The music mogul and judge was “always late” and “going through this period where he would just never turn up on time”, according to Ant.
“We were in the show less and less,” Dec continued. “It’s taking up a lot of our time. We’re not really in the show, we might as well leave and put our energies elsewhere.”
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The pair explained that Cowell was disappointed that they wanted to leave and gave them more to do while vowing to turn up on time.
The presenters and former popstars also launched a podcast recently, partly as a way of spending more time together after they drifted apart slightly.
Britain’s Got Talent returns on 21 February.
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