Comic to be new judge

Michael McIntyre is to join the judges' table for next year's series of Britain's Got Talent.

The star of BBC One’s Comedy Roadshow will be switching to ITV1, alongside David Hasselhoff, who also joins the panel.

Amanda Holden will return for the 2011 series with Simon Cowell joining the talent competition's line-up during the later live stages.

The rejig comes as Piers Morgan is quitting the show to take over Larry King's daily talk show on American news network CNN in January.

ITV director of entertainment and comedy Elaine Bedell, said: ‘Britain's Got Talent is one of the UK's biggest entertainment shows and I'm delighted to unveil Michael McIntyre and David Hasselhoff alongside Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden in a stellar new lineup of judges.’

McIntyre said: 'I'm a massive fan of Britain's Got Talent and am extremely excited to be a judge on the new series. I was so thrilled when Simon Cowell asked me that I immediately wanted to run in to Ant and Dec's arms to celebrate.'

The job will be a major leap for his already successful career, although he said in an interview before today's news broke that he did not want to crack America.'It’s taken me long enough to sort things out here and I don’t want to start again somewhere else,' he said.

Previously both James Corden and Peter Kay had been tipped as possible replacements for Morgan.

Around 15 million viewers watched the final of this year's Britain's Got Talent which was won by gymnastic troupe Spelbound.

Published: 14 Dec 2010