During the audition phase of Britain’s Got Talent, each judge has a red buzzer in front of them, giving the opportunity to express their displeasure at the act performing in front of them.
In the middle of the judges, there’s also a Golden Buzzer, which has a much more favourable effect for contestants brave enough to take to the stage in front of Simon, Alesha, Amanda and Bruno.
The purpose of hitting the golden button is for judges to put an act of their choice straight through to the live semi finals of the series.
The Golden Buzzer has two key effects:
- The act doesn’t need a minimum of three judges to ‘say yes’ to putting them through rather than saying no to them – in effect voting for them to be eliminated.
- They bypass the phase at the end of the auditions where judges whittle down the number of acts still standing to fill the number of places still available in the live semi final week.
How Many Golden Buzzer Acts Progress?
The ‘official’ rule is that each judge can press the golden buzzer once per series, with more recent series allowing the same power to presenters Ant and Dec too.
However, and probably inevitably, over time the rules have progressed from being followed, to being bent a bit, to now almost being guaranteed to going over quota.
In 2024, media reports suggest nine acts will get the golden buzzer advantage, almost doubling the allotted slots.
More On BGT
- What Does The Golden Buzzer Do?
During the audition phase of Britain’s Got Talent, each judge has a red buzzer in front of them, giving the opportunity to express their displeasure at the act performing in front of them. In the… Read more: What Does The Golden Buzzer Do?
