Britain’s Got Talent producers have apologised for not making it clearer that the winning act – a dog called Matisse – was substituted for a lookalike in the high-wire stunt that helped the animal and its owner win the talent competition.
A spokesman for the producers said viewers of the semi-final had seen that winner Jules O’Dwyer’s act involved several dogs who participated alongside Matisse to help perform her “unique mixture of dog agility and storytelling”.
But during the final, a dog called Chase replaced Matisse in the tightrope act. The producers said: “We are sorry if this was not made clearer to the judges and viewers at home during their final performance”.
A social media backlash against O’Dwyer’s win began after she admitted substituting Matisse because he is scared of heights. “Matisse is a little bit afraid of heights, so although he could officially do it, Chase is the action dog, so he plays the double for him,” O’Dwyer admitted on ITV breakfast show Lorraine. “Every dog has a different character. The tightrope takes months of training.”
Chase had previously appeared in O’Dwyer’s semi-final performance alongside Matisse. However, in the final, for which O’Dwyer used a cops and robbers theme, the swap was done behind the scenes to make it look like Matisse had performed all the tricks.
One Twitter user said that the use of the stunt dog meant that magician Jamie Raven had been “pretty much robbed of £250,000”. Another tweeted that BGT’s producers should have informed viewers about the sleight of hand before the public decided who to vote for in the final.
Britain’s Got Talent is now facing a potential Ofcom investigation after complaints that millions of viewers who voted for “Matisse” may have been conned.
O’Dwyer had narrowly won the public vote at the weekend, when 4.5m votes were cast via the BGT app for free and by landline or mobile at 50p. The canine act won£250,000 and the chance to perform in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance. O’Dwyer and Matisse received 22.6% of the votes while Raven got 20.4%.
The final was watched by an average of 11.7 million viewers – a million more than last year – making it the most watched show of 2015 so far.
Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, said it would assess the complaints to see whether a formal investigation of a potential breach of the broadcasting code was warranted.
According to its code, broadcasters must not “materially mislead the audience”. And in terms of competitions “broadcasters must ensure that viewers and listeners are not materially misled about any broadcast competition or voting”.
The accusations of fakery will bring back unhappy memories for ITV executives, who paid out a record £5.7m fine in 2008 for “seriously and repeatedly misleading” audiences over TV phone-in deceptions on hit shows including Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.
ITV and the show’s co-producer FremantleMedia did not respond to a request for comment.
