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'Singing' Monkey makes talent show final
Friday 15 June 2007
And the judges invited controversy by apparently choosing one winner because he was a "variety act".
The contestants had to convince judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden as well as the public as they sang, danced and shimmied their way through the show in the hope of winning the grand prize of £100,000 and a place in this year's Royal Variety Performance.
Of the eight variety acts on the show, the operatic performance of mobile phone salesman Paul Potts won the most public votes and impressed the judges.
The 36-year-old said of the show: "I have to win this competition to ensure I don't end up going back to the day job."
Piers Morgan said that he had wanted to find someone who had an ordinary job, but who also had an extraordinary talent. "You're that guy," he told him.
Damon Scott's comedy duet of Boyzone's No Matter What with a monkey puppet initially received mixed reviews from the judges, but the public vote put him up against teenage singer Dominic Smith.
Dominic had won Simon Cowell's admiration for his rendition of I'll Be There and the former X Factor judge voted for him "categorically".
However, despite an obvious reluctance to disappoint the 14-year-old contestant, both Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden gave their support to Damon.
Morgan, who had the deciding vote, said that his decision to send Damon to Sunday's final was influenced by his desire to have a "variety act" in the show.
The audience gave Dominic a thunderous blast of applause as he bowed out of the contest.
Child dancers Luke and Charlotte also missed out on a place in the final despite winning praise from the judges who confessed to enjoying their ballroom act almost reluctantly.
Piers Morgan was booed by the audience for saying that he had thought the pair would be "quite irritating", but qualified his statement by saying that the pair had actually been "charming".
The Ant and Dec fronted show has been a great success for ITV with Wednesday's instalment attracting around 7 million viewers, matching the finale of The Apprentice.
The final will be on ITV1 at 8pm on Sunday night.
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