TV show China’s Got Talent will be coming to Oxford next month on the hunt for the next lucky star of the future.
It is the first time the show, which attracted 600 million viewers last year, has looked for competitors outside of China.
Oxford is one of just five UK locations set to be visited by television executives from the Shanghai Media Group (SMG), which operates the show under licence from Simon Cowell’s company Syco and Freemantle.
The show also plans to stage auditions in Chinese communities in London, Manchester and Liverpool and Cambridge next month to find at least five winners. These finalists will then go to Shanghai to compete in the live show, which screens from November to January.
Twelve-year-old expert pianist Michael Ng has auditioned twice for Britain’s Got Talent, making it down to the last 200 each time.
But mother Cheri Ng, of Langford Village, in Bicester, said she thinks the competition for the Chinese version of the show will be even tougher.
She said: “In China children practice for hours and hours a day. I think Michael may audition, but I think the competition will be much tougher.”
No exact date or location has yet been set for the auditions.
Applications can be made either via the International Program Content Network (IPCN) website ipcn.co.uk/news/entry/CGT or the Starnow website starnow.co.uk/Casting-Calls/TV-Reality
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