There is a performance business that is leaving a very large footprint in history and it’s none other than talent shows. For this posting we’ll be focusing mainly on Britain’s Got Talent. It may be a surprise but we are going to analyse on the rise and fall of Britain’s Got Talent. We all know that one of the most simple creative media industries is talent based so BGT is a perfect example. They were starting really well and rising to viewers to a total peak of 12 million in 2013. However, there was a slow decline and and it kept dropping to a peak of just under 7 million in 2018. As a global orientated industry, a fall such as this could threaten how long they can keep the business going. Nonetheless this is the black and white obvious information, what we want to know is why the fall started. In theory, talent is usually refreshed every year so ideally you would be watching something “refreshing” correct? For BGT, it’s not the case, performances were too similar and it just seems to get more stale. Of course they still pull valiant effort to keep the show going on which is why they kept the peak of 7 million but a decline is still a decline and without any drastic action, the drop will get steeper.
In addition to the drop, part of the reasoning for the drop in 2018 is on behalf of the co-host Ant McPartlin. When a co-host gets globally exposed for drink-driving it reflects poorly for the company they’re working for. It risks image ruining. The ideologies begin to change and so does the view count. BGT is supposed to be suitable for minors too so Ant is not portraying a good example which in the end may stray away parent viewers.
In a partial conclusion, this is the reasoning behind the fall of BGT, so what made it big in the first place. Two iconic reasons; Initial talent and Simon Cowell making a name for himself. Initial talent is easy to impress the conscience because it’s the very first time being amazed, but after a while all the memories will slowly transfer to the sub-conscience in which you may respond “That’s not impressive, I’ve seen something like that before.” The second reasoning is Simon Cowell. His judging skill just became an attraction and even during the decline, the reasoning behind why it was even relatively high was mostly because of his presence.
But since this isn’t something that happens with all talent shows, why is X factor still thriving? X factor is based off a far more popular culture that is everlasting: music culture. It is pure music and dance performance. And being a small monopoly there isn’t much competition to overthrow their spot which means almost all worldwide viewers turn to X factor. A little bit of extra information that I picked up is that Simon Cowell is also judging on X factor too so with a bit of simple maths, Simon’s popularity is growing to a point of transcendence.
Article by Ruben Varela
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/tv/britains-talent-viewing-figures-how-14740968
Creative Industries in East London 