I've always thought there was a bit of artistic licence with the auctions anyway and they weren't always present in the room when the items were being auctioned.
They're usually at the back of the auction room, it can and must be quite annoying if one of the teams is squealing and making a lot of noise when their items makes a profit.
The early Dickinson episodes had them all talking very quietly, indicating they were in the auction room at least then and weren’t allowed to raise their voice too much - leading to one amusing moment where a team from America were making a loss and the contestant suddenly screamed “COME ON, BID!!” at the room, to the obvious horror of Dickinson.
Certainly seemed a lot more "normal" than the previous HIGNFY series that had everyone appearing via video link on Zoom. The lack of wide shot usually seen during the end credits would suggest that, for this series at least, they don't have the usual audience areas the show has always had on either side of the set for social distancing purposes.
Graham Norton has also returned to the studio for the first time since lockdown. The set has had its biggest change with a large circular stage allowing guests to socially distance on chairs rather than a sofa, Graham’s sofa moved to the centre of the stage and the surrounding set tweaked to balance on both sides. It works very well like this in my opinion, and it’s a lovely little change.
I've always thought the sofa was very cramped so I think it would good to adopt the chairs when the pandemic ends although obviously have them closer to Graham,
