Template:Infobox reality talent competitionSeries Two of Britain's Got Talent, a British talent competition series, began broadcasting in the UK during 2008, from 12 April to 31 May on ITV. Following the success of its first series, the show returned with an expanded schedule, allowing for additional live semi-finals to take place and a larger number of finalists moving on towards the live final, while having holding auditions in a larger variety of locations; apart from England and Wales, the show also held auditions within Scotland for the first time. Both the judges from the first series - Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan - and the hosts Ant & Dec, returned for the second series, along with Stephen Mulhern returning to front the second series of Britain's Got More Talent on ITV 2.
The second series was won by street dancer George Sampson, with dance duo Signature coming in second and singer Andrew Johnston in third. During its broadcast, the series proved to be a greater ratings success, averaging 10.2 million viewers.[1]
Series overview
Following open auditions held the previous year, the Judge's Auditions took place early in 2008, within London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Blackpool. With the success of the previous series, the production team decided to expand the show's filming schedule to include more episodes. This led to the addition of two more episodes for auditions and two more live episodes for semi-finals, in turn leading to a direct increase in the number of semi-finalists that the judges could move beyond the auditions stage of the competition. Both the judges and the presenters who took part in the first series agreed to return for the second series, leading to no significant changes in the panel or hosts.
Of the participants that took part, only forty made it past this stage and into the five live semi-finals,[2] with eight appearing in each one, and ten of these acts making it into the live final. The following below lists the results of each participant's overall performance in this series:
During the initial broadcast of the second series, several accusations were made in relation to unfair conduct, in which the show was criticised for allowing a professional group of performers to take part. The group in question, Escala, was noted in the media for having already performed during The X Factor wrap party in late 2007, before being invited to take part in the competition by Simon Cowell after the party. While the band had already been involved in a legal matter over their initial name of "Scala" when they auditioned, after it was found to be already in use by a female voice choir in Belgium,[18] ITV refuted the accusations highlighted by the media, stating that they had gone through "the same application and audition process as everyone else", and that the programme was open to any performer "be it professional or amateur, with any talent".[19]