It looks a relatively open final of Britain’s Got Talent, which means treatment tonight will make all the difference – it seems likely that producers will be able to engineer whatever result they want. But their intentions are far from clear, and “has it reached the stage where they don’t much care who wins any more?” seems like an increasingly valid question. Still, trying to guess their intentions is what we do here.
Market leaders Tokio Myers and Daliso Chaponda both have the advantage of offering the franchise a new type of winner, proving its “variety” credentials. Tokio – as a pianist who mixes the classical and modern – provides something completely different, as Simon told us at his audition. Meanwhile Amanda Holden has often repeated the line “I’d love the winner this year to be a comedian” about Daliso, her golden buzzer act.
Either of these two likeable acts winning would give the show a feel-good, rags-to-riches transformation, especially in the case of Tokio. However, he’s rather reliant on the stage direction adding impact to his performance. His semi-final staging contained a few elements we’d regard as red flags on X Factor – notably the fire and the scissor-lift plinth – but at least it added visual interest, which is necessary for an act that needs to spend all their time sitting at a piano.
In the case of Daliso, backing a comedian beforehand is relying on their final routine being as successful as the earlier ones. Some, such as Jack Carroll, manage this; others, like Francine Lewis, don’t.
There are two other comedians in tonight’s field, which isn’t ideal for Daliso, and would be somewhat careless on the part of producers if we take Amanda’s comments to indicate their favour. Perhaps producers were as surprised as the market by Ned Woodman and Matt Edwards getting through. Presumably these other two will be buried by the running order, though Matt at least offers a different type of physical comedy in his magic routines.
Among this year’s other magicians, Issy and DNA serve up the same kind of mind games. They both come into the final as semi-final winners. DNA are more convincing in hiding the set-up, but Issy is far more likeable as an act. The problem for both is that Richard Jones’s appearance as a guest this week reminded us they offer very much the same thing as last year’s winner.
No act apart from Diversity in 2009 has failed to win their semi-final before taking the main prize. That counts against Ned and Matt, along with the Missing People Choir, Kyle Tomlinson, tonight’s only dance act Mersey Girls, and especially any wildcard who failed to break the top two in their heat. The latter has yet to be announced, but the market thinks it’s Sarah Ikumu, Simon’s golden buzzer act.
Missing People Choir and Sarah Ikumu went into this week as first and second favourites respectively, so they have lost momentum. It felt like there was a slight end-of-journey sense about the choir’s treatment last night. Simon might demand the public remedy their mistake re Sarah Ikumu, but social media this week has suggested declining public patience with BGT being used as a springboard for singing acts who have any number of other shows they could enter.
That leaves us with The Pensionaires, who offer a feel-good USP. The doubt here is that Simon has given the impression this week that he’s keen on a winner having post-show relevance, and if that’s the case then they wouldn’t be the first act you would think of.
It’s worth bearing in mind how much the market moves on the running order reveal. Even if least year’s result showed that you can get an act to win from anywhere, Richard Jones was only the third act in ten series to win from anywhere but the last two slots of the running order.
That means there will be a market reaction to the tweet from the official Britain’s Got Talent account, which gives a YouTube playlist preview that has proved around 90% accurate on running order. And another one if producers then go and make some last-minute changes. We don’t put anything past them. On which note, good luck with your trading tonight, and keep letting us know your thoughts below.
The market is looking slightly less confident of Sarah being the wildcard now. Either that or she may well have an early running order slot.
lots of potential vote splits tonight. Comedians. Magicians. Mpc/pensionalities. I hope this pave this paves the way for Tokio. This method of thinking help me win big with Ashley and Pudsey but left me burnt on Bars and Melody.
Biggest price crash of the day comes via izzy simpson
Daliso is the most likely winner for me. He just seems like the right act for the right audience at the right time. There are no barriers to entry to his act, it’s something the whole family can enjoy and he has a very likable every man persona. I think it’ll be to the show’s benefit, we’ve seen how this year has so many magicians responding to Richard Jones’ win it’ll be better for the show to be flooded with comedians rather than instrumentalists. Daliso won his semi from fourth in the running order (strangely without a ad break between him and the MPC) and in recent years they have tended to give the pimp slots to acts that won their semi from early slots.
Jack Carroll ran Attraction surprising close so I don’t think there is anything stopping a comedian winning just there hasn’t been one good enough in the right year.
Tokio is probably my personal pick (and best return), if judged on talent alone he should be winning tonight. I think he is relying on producer favour a lot ;for framing in the VT to connect to Tokio, for running order and for the visual aspect of the performance. If all that works he can definitely win.
Predicted finishing order:
1. Daliso
2. Tokio
3. Issy Simpson
4. MPC
5. The Pensionalities
6. DNA
(Sarah Ikumu)
7. Kyle Tomlinson
8. Ned Woodman
9. MerseyGirls
10. Matt Edwards
Sarah ikumu odds coming right back in now. Looks like shes a wildcard tonight
1. Tokio Myers
2. Isst Simpson
3. Daliso Chaponda
Bang on. Well done, hope there was massive profits all around.
Good call.
I’m not the type to blow my own trumpet but thats not a bad shout. Hope everyone had a good one tonight. I did.
Best BGT ever 🙂
I’m sure you did mate. But a little more guidance for fellow posters on this site in advance to results would not go a miss 😉
Voting stats: http://www.itv.com/britainsgottalent/insider/britains-got-talent-2017-voting-percentages-revealed
Comfortable win for Tokio not needing the diversity ramp. Happy days
I won several million pound by correctly naming the top 11 tonight and the correct percentages. Coined it in. Didnt want to help anyone out with my insight cost the only thing that matters is my wallet. Cheers
Tokio deserved winner, class act. Is anyone else stunned by Matt Edwards in 4th, must be a lot of 5 year olds with iPads these days. MPC surprisingly low percentages on semi and final.
Will we be getting a post mortem this year chaps? Been a very low key bgt on here this year.
Also been low key post-Eurovision with no post-mortem 🙁
I have nothing to do with BGT but I saw on Betfair that Missing People Choir were the favorites and they got only 5.2% of people votes. That’s funny.
Were favourites from the moment they appeared on the audition show until they came 2nd in their semi. Thankfully I swerved them.
The market didn’t wait for them to come second, they were no long favourite half way through their song. The market remembered suddenly to win a talent show you need a talent, a sob story can draw attention to a talent but doesn’t convert to many votes without one.
The BGT market consistency overestimates solo singers too, with the over saturation of singing competitions now it would take something really special to win as a solo singer.