Britain's Got Talent guest judge KSI sparks huge reaction and promises to be villain

Britain's Got Talent 2025 is set to launch this month, featuring a new guest judge with KSI serving as Bruno Tonioli's replacement.

Coming in as a guest judge can be a tricky gig as audiences are hoping to see the star panel at auditions, but the influencer, boxer and musician was apparently a hit on the three days where he stood in for Tonioli.

KSI landed the enviable gig as guest judge on one of Britain's biggest reality TV shows alongside fellow panellists Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon. With a big following on social media, the YouTuber was always going to be a popular choice.

Britain's Got Talent's first official picture showed the TV judges having fantastic fun behind the scenes of the 2025 series. Hosts Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly were also swept up in the excitement of the filming.

A TV source told Yahoo: "KSI was very well received by the audience when he was introduced to the stage by Ant and Dec – they went wild. There was a great energy from everyone in the room, including the judges."

The four judges joined Ant and Dec in Blackpool for the first audition day of the 2025 series. Britain's Got Talent's auditions kicked off as the judges begun their search to find their winner and Holden revealed they were so impressed that three golden buzzers were pressed.

The stakes remain higher than ever and the coveted prize of a spot on the bill of the Royal Variety Performance and a life-changing ￡250,000 cash prize is up for grabs.

Read more

• First official Britain's Got Talent snap featuring brand new guest judge (OK! magazine, 3-min read)

• KSI to play the 'villain' as Britain's Got Talent guest judge (BANG, 2-min read)

• 'I won Britain's Got Talent but it breaks my heart people are so against me'

Who is KSI?

Olajide William "JJ" Olatunji is best known as KSI. Back in 2009, the influencer first started out on YouTube posting about video games but now he has a huge following of 24.1 million.

While he started out on YouTube, he has turned his hand to different career paths including releasing music. His debut studio album Dissimulation was out last year; his songs include Really Love and Don't Play.

KSI also has his own reality show Inside which he launched with a group of YouTube influencers The Sideman made up of: Vikram Singh Barn, Ethan Payne, Harry Lewis, Joshua Bradley, TBJZL and Simon Minter. Inside is a fun spin on Big Brother and sees 10 influencers locked in a house competing for a ￡1m prize.

As if that's not enough for a knockout career, KSI also has established himself as a boxer. Last year he fought Love Island star Tommy Fury in the ring and Molly-Mae Hague's ex is still talking about him now. This week, he told Holden: "If his judging skills are anything like his boxing skills, he's going to be absolutely useless isn't he? I doubt he'll do too well to be honest, but let's wait and see."

KSI is no stranger to TV and has had Prime Video documentary KSI: In Real Life made about his career and stardom.

KSI to be Britain's Got Talent's 'villain' judge

The social media star may only be filling in for three days on Britain's Got Talent but he plans to make sure his stay is memorable. Playfully, KSI said he would be playing the villain and may even press the red button before contestants have even had the chance to perform.

He told 'Capital': "I've kicked Bruno [Tonioli] out, and I'm taking his place! Actually, he's coming back, but I'm there for a little bit. Yeah, it's going to be fun, man. I'm going to judge some talent.

"Everyone thinks I'm going to be an evil judge, I'm going to be a villain – I'm going to just press the red button as soon as they walk out. I might do that every now and then, but I'm just going to have fun with it and we'll just see what happens."

Where is Bruno Tonioli?

Headlines claimed Bruno Tonioli was being dropped from Britain's Got Talent and Cowell had to get involved to shut rumours down.

He told Heart Breakfast: "I don’t know where all this stuff comes from. I spoke to the producers literally two weeks ago about it. There is a scheduling issue with Bruno because we’re doing some of the auditions this year and he’s going to be in America."

Determined to keep Tonioli on the BGT panel, the music mogul has found a way around the filming clashes. Already the former Strictly Come Dancing judge was penned into work in the US where he is committed to US reality TV show Dancing With the Stars.

Britain’s Got Talent will return to ITV1 and ITVX at 7pm on Saturday, 22 February.