Dog trainers on America’s Got Talent better be taking note of what’s going on in the U.K. right now with Britain’s Got Talent. A dog trainer won the U.K. version of the show, but the show is now being investigated because she used a stunt dog during her final performance.
Jules O’Dwyer and her dog Matisse won the competition after her May 31 performance , which supposedly showed Matisse walking across a tightrope. However, it was later revealed that Matisse was not the dog that performed that stunt, since he is afraid of heights. Instead, O’Dwyer used a stunt dog to complete that feat.
However, ITV never made it clear that O’Dwyer was using a stunt dog before the vote. O’Dwyer and Matisse ended up with beating magician Jamie Raven by just 2 percentage points, notes BBC News.
Ofcom, the British broadcasting watchdog group, said that it received 1,150 complaints from viewers after the truth came out. They were particularly annoyed, because voting by phone costs 50p.
“We've opened an investigation to determine whether viewers of ITV's Britain's Got Talent final, who may have paid money to vote, were misled about the competition,” an Ofcom spokesman told the BBC.
The incident has even left judge Simon Cowell embarrassed. In an interview with The Daily Mirror, he said that O’Dwyer’s act shouldn’t have been billed as just “Jules and Matisse.” They should have called the act “Jules, Matisse and Friends.” Cowell doesn’t think anyone should be fired over the incident, calling it a “stupid mistake on a live show.” Still, he was disappointed.
“I was frustrated because I didn’t really know what I was judging until afterwards so I felt like a bit of an idiot,” Cowell told the Mirror.
He later added, “You’ve got to own up to your mistakes. The viewers have to trust us and know exactly what goes on. There was definitely no intention from the producers to hide this, that I do know 100%.”
BGT winners receive £250,000 and a spot during the Royal Variety Performance.