Britain's Got Talent (series 11)
The eleventh series of Britain's Got Talent, a British talent competition series, began broadcasting in the UK during 2017, from 15 April to 3 June on ITV; because the One Love Manchester concert was to take place on 4 June, the live final was brought forward a day to avoid clashing with it. Following the closure of Fountain Studios the previous year, the live episodes were broadcast from Elstree Studios. The change in location allowed for a revamp of the studio used by both the main programme and its sister show, Britain's Got More Talent.
For the first time in eleven years, this series featured no judges' vote for each semi final - instead the acts getting the highest and second-highest tally of public votes would move on to the live final; after the series' conclusion, Cowell admitted that he disliked this format change. In addition to the judges not voting for an act, the Public Wildcard format was dropped from the show, while the number of acts making it into the semi-finals was reduced to 40, returning to the original semi-final format used prior to the sixth series.
The eleventh series was won by musician Tokio Myers, with magician Issy Simpson finishing in second place and comedian Daliso Chaponda in third place. During its broadcast, the series averaged around 9.1 million viewers.
Series overview
Following open auditions held the previous year between October to December, the Judges' audition took place between January and February 2017, within Blackpool, London, Birmingham and Salford. Along with discontinuing the use of the Public wildcard format, production staff changed the rules to suspend the use of the Judges' vote - the change meant that the voting system would be purely conducted by a public vote, with the semi-finalists receiving the highest and second-highest tally of votes respectively automatically securing a place in the live final. This change in format was not announced until 27 May 2017; on 5 June, following the conclusion of the eleventh series, Cowell admitted he disliked this change and had production staff informed it would not be used for the next series.Of the participants that took part, only forty made it into the five live semi-finals - of these acts, singer Sarah Ikumu, dance group MerseyGirls, comedian Daliso Chaponda, comic magician Matt Edwards, and singer Kyle Tomlinson, each received a golden buzzer during their auditions - with eight appearing in each one - returning to the original arrangement before the sixth series - and eleven of these acts making it into the live final; the wildcard act chosen by the judges was Sarah Ikumu, after she placed 3rd in the public vote in the third semi-final. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this series:
| Participant | Age | Genre | Act | From | Semi-final | Result |
| Angelicus Celtis | 12-17 | Singing | Choir | Llanelli, Carmarthenshire | 4 | |
| Code 3 | 14-16 | Dance | Dance Trio | Dartford, Kent | 5 | |
| Daliso Chaponda | 37 | Comedy | Stand-up Comedian | Manchester | 5 | ' |
| David Geaney | 22 | Dance | Dancer | Republic of Ireland | 3 | |
| Destiny Chukunyere | 14 | Singing | Singer | Birkirkara, Malta | 2 | |
| Dizzy Twilight | 65 | Variety | DJ | Wiltshire | 2 | |
| DNA | 29, 43 | Magic | Mentalists | London | 1 | ' |
| Empire Dance Crew | 15-27 | Dance | Street Dance Troupe | London | 1 | |
| Grace & Ali | 17, 16 | Dance | Dancing Duo | Hartlepool & Middlesbrough | 2 | |
| Harry Gardner | 16 | Singing / Music | Singer & Pianist | Essex | 2 | |
| Issy Simpson | 8 | Magic | Magician | Blackpool | 2 | ' |
| Jamie Lee Harrison | 24 | Singing | Singer | Newcastle upon Tyne | 5 | |
| Jay Wynn | 36 | Singing | Singing Robot | Gloucester, Gloucestershire | 3 | |
| Jess Robinson | 34 | Comedy | Impressionist | London | 5 | |
| John Parnell | 63 | Variety | Hula-Hoop Artist | Nuneaton, Warwickshire | 4 | |
| Jonny Awsum | 39 | Singing / Comedy | Comic Singer | London | 4 | |
| Josephine Lee | 30 | Magic | Illusionist | London | 3 | |
| Kyle Tomlinson | 15 | Singing | Singer | Sheffield | 1 | ' |
| Leah Barniville | 14 | Singing | Classical Singer | Republic of Ireland | 2 | |
| London School of Bollywood | 18-27 | Dance | Bollywood Dance Troupe | London | 3 | |
| Lords Of Strut | 35, 36 | Dance / Comedy | Comic Dance Duo | Cork, Republic of Ireland | 5 | |
| Martin & Faye | 47, 10 | Singing | Opera Duo | Warrington, Cheshire | 3 | |
| Matt Edwards | 34 | Magic / Comedy | Comic Magician | Suffolk | 2 | ' |
| MerseyGirls | 14-17 | Dance | Dance Group | Merseyside | 4 | ' |
| Miss Treat Vibe | 19-24 | Singing | Girl Group | Sheffield, London, Birmingham & Swindon, Wiltshire | 1 | |
| Missing People Choir | 32-71 | Singing | Choir | London | 5 | ' |
| Ned Woodman | 8 | Comedy | Stand-up Comedian | Maidstone, Kent | 3 | ' |
| Niels Harder | 26 | Magic / Comedy | Comic Magician | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 1 | |
| Paws With Soul | 24-29 | Dance | Dance Troupe | London | 4 | |
| PC Dan | 33 | Dance | Dancer | Kingston upon Hull | 1 | |
| Perfect Pitch Creation | 8-14 | Singing | Choir | Derbyshire | 5 | |
| Reuben Gray | 16 | Singing / Music | Singer & Guitarist | Guildford, Surrey | 4 | |
| Ryan Tracey | 35 | Variety | Balloonist | Omagh, County Tyrone | 4 | |
| Sarah Ikumu | 16 | Singing | Singer | Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire | 3 | ' |
| St. Patrick's Junior Choir Drumgreenagh | 8-12 | Singing | Choir | Rathfriland, County Down | 1 | |
| TapTastik | 19-62 | Dance | Tap Dance Troupe | Brighton, East Sussex | 2 | |
| The Pensionalities | 84, 75 | Singing | Singing Duet | Doncaster, South Yorkshire | 4 | ' |
| TNG Characters | 16-25 | Dance | Dance Troupe | London | 5 | |
| Tokio Myers | 32 | Music | Pianist | London | 3 | |
| Tyrone & Mina | 36, 35 | Danger | Knife Throwing Duo | Argentina & Spain | 1 |
- Ages denoted in this column pertain to those of the respective participant for their final performance for this series.
- Each respective participant auditioned under a different name, before changing them for their semi-final appearance.
Semi-finals summary
Semi-final 1 (29 May)
Guest Performers, Results Show: Alfie Boe & Dame Vera LynnSemi-final 2 (30 May)
Guest Performer, Results Show: Camila CabelloSemi-final 3 (31 May)
Guest Performers, Results Show: Cast of Bat Out of Hell: The Musical- Sarah Ikumu was later sent through to the final as the judges' wildcard.
Semi-final 4 (1 June)
Semi-final 5 (2 June)
Guest Performer, Results Show: 5 After MidnightFinal (3 June)
Guest Performers, Results Show: Diversity| Finalist | Order | Act | Finished |
| The Pensionalities | 1 | Singing Duo | 5th |
| MerseyGirls | 2 | Dance Group | 9th |
| Kyle Tomlinson | 3 | Singer | 6th |
| Ned Woodman | 4 | Stand-up Comedian | 10th |
| DNA | 5 | Mentalists | 11th |
| Matt Edwards | 6 | Comic Magician | 4th |
| Missing People Choir | 7 | Choir | 8th |
| Sarah Ikumu | 8 | Singer | 7th |
| Daliso Chaponda | 9 | Stand-up Comedian | 3rd |
| Issy Simpson | 10 | Magician | 2nd |
| Tokio Myers | 11 | Pianist | 1st |
Ratings
| Episode | Air date | Total viewers | ITV Weekly rank |
| Auditions 1 | 11.35 | 1 | |
| Auditions 2 | 11.62 | 2 | |
| Auditions 3 | 10.79 | 1 | |
| Auditions 4 | 11.69 | 1 | |
| Auditions 5 | 10.97 | 1 | |
| Auditions 6 | 11.39 | 1 | |
| Auditions 7 | 10.69 | 1 | |
| Semi-final 1 | 9.75 | 2 | |
| Semi-final 1 results | 7.19 | 12 | |
| Semi-final 2 | 7.90 | 10 | |
| Semi-final 2 results | 6.44 | 16 | |
| Semi-final 3 | 8.24 | 8 | |
| Semi-final 3 results | 6.78 | 14 | |
| Semi-final 4 | 7.54 | 11 | |
| Semi-final 4 results | 7.09 | 13 | |
| Semi-final 5 | 8.10 | 9 | |
| Semi-final 5 results | 6.51 | 15 | |
| Final | 10.07 | 1 |
Controversy
Admin blunderFollowing the broadcast of the second audition episode, the programme faced controversy over an administrative mistake that hadn't been noticed until a production researcher had been doing background checks on a pair of participants. In 2015, the programme's terms and conditions had been amended with a new rule, stipulating that any foreign participants that took part on Britain's Got Talent would be required to have the proper visas that gave them "the right to live and work in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Republic of Ireland". However, the programme's official website had not been updated when Chinese acrobatics duo Gao Lin and Liu Xin applied for an audition, and thus were unaware that their UK visas, which were for visitation rights, made them ineligible to win the contest's prize if they had proceeded further into the contest and won the final.