Britain’s Got Talent’s Chandi has been on TV before

Chandi the dancing dog, and her owner Tina Humphrey, amazed the audience, the home viewers (and most importantly, the judges) on the first episode of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent last week – but according to a report from the Daily Mail, the pair are no strangers to TV talent contests.

Chandi, a rescue dog from Shropshire, performed ballet, dancing with her owner and even held a broom on her own at one point, but the Mail claims that the pair have done this all before. The pair actually competed in, and won, a heat of ‘When Will I Be Famous’ on the BBC in 2007, hosted by Graham Norton, and picked up a cheque for £10,000.

The pair have also performed their routine on ITV show ‘Richard and Judy’, on the BBC’s ‘Blue Peter’ and again at Crufts last year. At Crufts in 2009, Chandi’s incredible obedience training enabled her to win all three of the ‘Freestyle Finals’ and the ‘Heelwork-To-Music’ events, making her the only dog in history to have won all three at once.

ITV has defended the duo though, saying that there are no rules stopping entrants who have competed on other talent shows previously.

The Daily Mail reported than an insider on Britain’s Got Talent commented:

Chandi was a big hit with viewers on Saturday, but she is not exactly an undiscovered talent.

Viewers who saw Chandi on other shows will already know her talent, and will be reaching for their phones to vote for her when the live shows begin.

Chandri is the second successful dancing dog to have appeared on the show. The first was Gin, who appeared with her owner Kate Nicholas in 2008. Kate was quite bitter about Chandri’s prior experience:

Chandi is a showbiz dog, she has grown up appearing at shows and on TV.

What’s unique about Gin is that I taught her all those tricks at home.

When she went on BGT it was the first time she’d ever been on stage.

The second episode of Britain’s Got Talent is tonight on ITV.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHoJEiKB9xk]

Comments

  • I don’t think it matters if Chandi has been on TV before. The show is about talent, and she’s one talented dog – that’s all that really matters.

  • This story is so stupid! All this info is on Tina’s website, so nothing to be ‘revealed’ or hidden – besides how can something be secret if it’s happened on live TV in front of millions of people?! There are no rules saying that people with previous Tv exposure can’t enter BGT, so what IS the problem?!

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