Simon Cowell has poached Alesha Dixon from Strictly Come Dancing for Britain’s Got Talent.
Dixon will join the judging panel on the ailing Saturday night ITV show. The move is seen as a spectacular riposte to revive BGT after Strictly won the ratings batttle with Cowell’s other talent show, The X Factor, last season. Cowell believes that 33-year-old Dixon will “bring a lot to the table” in 2012, not only helping to beat the BBC’s flagship talent show but also The X Factor.
"She is feisty, opinionated and knows what it is like to be both a competitor and a judge on a hugely popular TV show,” he said of Dixon who won Strictly Come Dancing as a celebrity contestant in 2007.
Dixon has said that she is excited to be working with Cowell and the two other BGT judges, David Walliams and Amanda Holden. Cowel has also spoken of his ambitions for BGT which he hopes will find a “better winner” than The X Factor. "It's the year of the Olympics, it's a big year for Britain, we are going to be in the world's spotlight and I want this show to be back in the world's spotlight . . . You want someone who can be a star all over the world."
The BBC said that it would announce a replacement for Dixon in the summer with bookmaker William Hill citing Karen Hardy — previously one of the professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing — as the frontrunner.
