During the previous series, it was announced that the show would return for a nineteenth series with auditions opening whilst it was airing.[4] In July 2025, it was announced that Bruno Tonioli had decided to quit the show after three years, due to his commitments as a judge on Dancing with the Stars in the United States.[5][6] He was subsequently replaced by KSI, who was a guest judge on the previous series and joined Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon on the judging panel.[7][8]
Auditions for the series began on 3 October 2025 at the Birmingham Hippodrome.[9][10] Auditions were originally planned to start filming the day prior, however Cowell suffered a fall and a head injury, so that day's tapings were called off. Stacey Solomon served as a guest judge in his place on the first filming day, and he would later return for the second day in Birmingham (4 October 2025), ending a two day stint in the Hippodrome. The auditions would then move to the Winter Gardens, Blackpool the following week.[11][12][13] The series began on 21 February 2026, and as in the previous series, would air weekly, excluding 14 March due to ITV airing live coverage of the final match weekend 2026 Six Nations Championship. Additionally, the 4th Semi-Final of the show would be broadcast on 17 May, due to the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 final airing the day before.[14] There was a slight controversy over a last minute rule change from Cowell that allowed for Kevin Hogg to go through to the next round, after he received a split decision from the panel (with Dixon and Holden voting 'no', whilst KSI and Cowell voted 'yes'). Normally this would mean acts are eliminated, however Cowell allowed the presenters Ant & Dec to cast 'yes' votes also, subsequently allowing Hogg through. This was seen as unfair by viewers, as other acts, possibly more talented than Hogg, did not get this opportunity.[15]
Winner Runner-up Third Place Semi-Finalist Wildcard Golden Buzzer Live Show Golden Buzzer
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
