<P> Britain's Got Talent (often shortened to BGT) is a British television talent show competition, and is part of the Got Talent franchise . Produced by both Thames (formerly Talkback Thames) and Syco Entertainment production, and distributed by FremantleMedia, it has been broadcast on ITV since June 2007, and hosted by Ant & Dec, with each series accompanied by a sister show on ITV2 entitled Britain's Got More Talent . Contestants of any any age, who possess some sort of talent, can audition for the show, with their performance judged by a panel of judges; the current lineup consists of the show's creator Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, and David Walliams . Those that make it through the auditions, compete against other acts in a series of semi-finals, with the winning two acts of each semi-final proceeding into the show's live final . The prize for the winner of each series' final, is a cash prize (the amount varying over the show's history), plus an opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of members of the British Royal Family, including either Queen Elizabeth II or the Prince of Wales . To date, the show has had eleven winners, ranging from musicians and singers, to variety acts, magicians and dancers . </P> <P> A significant show in British popular culture, Britain's Got Talent is the UK's biggest television talent competition, ahead of both The X Factor (also created by Cowell) and The Voice UK), with the show's live final in the third series attracting 17.3 million viewers, a 64.6% audience share at the time of its broadcast . At present, the programme is contracted to run until 2019 . </P> <P> The show's format was devised by X Factor creator and Sony Music executive, Simon Cowell, who was involved in the creation of other Got Talent programmes across several different countries . To showcase his idea, a pilot episode was filmed in September 2005, with the judging panel consisting of Cowel, then - This Morning presenter Fern Britton, and tabloid journalist Piers Morgan; the pilot was not broadcast on television until it was shown as part of a documentary series entitled The Talent Show Story in January 2012 . </P> <P> The original plan for the show was for it be aired within 2005 - 06, before the broadcast of America's Got Talent, with Paul O'Grady presenting the programme under the title Paul O'Grady's Got Talent, after having hosted the pilot, with his selection as host due to the popularity he was attaining from his teatime chat show, The Paul O'Grady Show . However, complication arose when O'Grady was involved in a row with ITV and refused to appear on another show of the broadcaster, eventually defecting to Channel 4 to continue hosting his teatime show, effectively putting plans for the programme on hold . In a 2010 interview, O'Grady commented about the row by stating: </P>

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