As Piers Morgan had departed from the programme the previous year, and the schedule of Simon Cowell made him unable to attend auditions,[1] the producers arranged for Amanda Holden to be joined by David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre on the judging panel.
[5] During the broadcast of the fifth series, the programme faced accusations of unfair treatment to participants, while the producers had to bring in police to investigate a suspected act of online bullying against one of the semi-finalists during production.
For the first time in the show's history, after the auditions were over, some of the acts found themselves having to perform again, due to the judges facing some difficulty in making a final decision on whom to send through into the live semi-finals.
Britain's Got More Talent presenter Stephen Mulhern refuted the allegations made by the complaints, making clear that production staff maintain high commitment to the well-being of participants (such as had been done for Susan Boyle in the third series) and that Hobson's performance had not been rigged against her.
[28] One of the more serious matters that occurred off-camera was the publication of a malicious blog against the participant Ronan Parke, which claimed that the competition had been fixed so that the singer would win and that he had been groomed by Simon Cowell's company Syco for two years in preparation to fulfil a record contract.