As Britain's Got Talent is back this Saturday, I think it's time to start a ratings thread. Hopefully it'll catch on. For reference, here are the official ratings for both series, along with some trivia.

Trivia
2007 (series 1) average: 8.41m
2008 (series 2) average: 10.21m

Most watched series: 10.21m (Series 2, 2008)
Least watched series: 8.41m (Series 1, 2007)
Most watched launch: 9.44m (Series 2, 2008)
Least watched launch: 5.20m (Series 1, 2007)
Most watched non-launch auditions show: 10.96m (Series 2, Show 2, 2008)
Least watched non-launch auditions show: 6.73m (Series 1, Show 2, 2007)
Most watched semi-final show: 11.86m (Series 2, Show 5, 2008)
Least watched semi-final show: 8.36m (Series 1, Show 1, 2007)
Most watched final performances show: 11.58m (Series 1, 2007)
Least watched final performances show: 11.52m (Series 2, 2008)
Most watched final results show: 13.88m (Series 2, 2008)
Least watched final results show: 11.45m (Series 1, 2007)

Series 1 (2007)
Auditions 1: 5.20m
Auditions 2: 6.73m
Auditions 3: 7.28m
Auditions 4: 7.39m
Auditions 5: 7.51m
Semi-final 1: 8.36m
Semi-final 2: 9.28m
Semi-final 3: 9.29m
Final performances: 11.58m
Final results: 11.45m

Series average: 8.41m
Auditions average: 6.82m
Semi-finals average: 8.98m
All live shows average: 9.99m

Series 2 (2008)
Auditions 1: 9.44m
Auditions 2: 10.96m
Auditions 3: 9.86m
Auditions 4: 9.12m
Auditions 5: 8.17m
Auditions 6: 9.11m
Auditions 7: 8.27m
Semi-final 1: 11.33m
Semi-final 2: 9.29m
Semi-final 3: 10.03m
Semi-final 4: 10.13m
Semi-final 5: 11.86m
Final performances: 11.52m
Final results: 13.88m

Series Average: 10.21m
Auditions average: 9.28m
Semi-finals average: 10.53m
All live shows average: 11.15m

Overnights

Here are the overnights for all BGT episodes:

Series 1 (2007)
Auditions 1: 4.9m (22.7%)
Auditions 2: 6.4m (28.0%)
Auditions 3: 6.9m (29.4%)
Auditions 4: 6.8m (29.3%)
Auditions 5: 7.1m (29.2%)
Semi-final 1: 7.9m (34.0%)
Semi-final 2: 8.9m (38.1%)
Semi-final 3: 8.9m (40.9%)
Final performances: 11.0m (43.7%)
Final results: 10.6m (44.7%)

Series average: 7.9m (34%)
Auditions average: 6.4m (27.7%)
Semi-finals average: 8.6m (37.7%)
All live shows average: 9.5m (40.3%)

Series 2 (2008)
Auditions 1: 8.82m (37.0%)
Auditions 2: 10.33m (43.3%)
Auditions 3: 9.40m (41.3%)
Auditions 4: 8.48m (39.1%)
Auditions 5: 7.51m (37.9%)
Auditions 6: 8.57m (37.5%)
Auditions 7: 7.72m (37.2%)
Semi-final 1: 10.86m (42.0%)
Semi-final 2: 8.83m (35.3%)
Semi-final 3: 9.30m (35.9%)
Semi-final 4: 9.70m (41.9%)
Semi-final 5: 11.44m (50.5%)
Final performances: 10.99m (51.1%)
Final results: 13.07m (55.1%)

Series Average: 9.64m (41.8%)
Auditions average: 8.69m (39.0%)
Semi-finals average: 10.03m (41.1%)
All live shows average: 10.60m (44.5%)

Thanks for those Score. It's quite surprising to see how low BGT started with just over 5 million viewers and how it doubled its audience as time went on!

I think tomorrow's launch will do well. I can see it hitting 10 million.

It's going to be quite a task to even match last years ratings let alone surpass them. I think if the auditions improve a bit, then it might happen. But that might depend on the weather. Last years audition episodes varied quite a bit.

Yeah, the auditions were defiantely hit by the weather later in the run. However, it wasn't just the weather, the scheduling also harmed the last couple of episodes. I'd Do Anything wasn't the strongest show, but it always got decent numbers (5-6m), and was the same genre as BGT, so when I'd Do anything was scheduled for a 7.45pm start, it was most foolish of ITV to start BGT at 8pm (episode 6). In the final 15 minutes, after IDA had ended, it had 9.8m, and could have topped 10m had it started at 8.45pm. ITV need to be sharper this year.

Also, the last auditions show was hit by a direct (8pm start) clash with Eurovision. A 7.50pm start would probably have boosted it by about 0.5m.

As for tomorrow, I predict 9.1m. Apparently Kelly Brook doesn't even feature in this week's episode, so I'd imagine the ratings to get a bump for the episode which she does feature on (they'll probably bill her as a guest judge).

I don't think it will rate as highly as last year.

But X Factor suprised me and rated higher than last year's BGT so anything could happen!

I dont think it will have done that well, it was a bit of a slog if I'm honest although I hope it beat Dr Who.

It beat Dr Who, It got 10.5 Million

Fantastic for BGT. It smashed my expectations.

So, just to sum up:

Saturday 11th April overnights
19:45- Britain's Got Talent: 10.52m (45.1%)
- peak: 11.81m (50.1%) at 8.40pm
21:15- Britain's Got More Talent: 1.33m (6.7%)
- most watched multichannel programme of the day

A fantastic start to the series. It's well on the way to matching or even surpassing last year's series average.

I'm glad it did well. It was a very entertaining first show.

Wow! Excellent ratings, I knew it would do well but not that well I was expecting somewhere in the region of 9 million. A peak of almost 12 million aswell.

Even BGMT did really well.

Superb figures for BGT.

1.7m higher than last year and 6 points higher in audience share. I think that would be the most watched auditions episode ever (including X Factor?).

Fantastic start to the series.

Wow, more than any audition including X Factor


It was a great show last night, so glad it rated so highly

Just shows that ITV can produce great telly unlike the BBC. Those are outstanding ratings.

Last night....

11.9m and 51% audience share.

Wow.

Brilliant

I can only imagine what the ratings will be like for the next show that Susan sings on

It's also the most watched show of 2009. Eastenders is currently top with 11.46m on officials. By the time the official ratings for BGT come out, there will be more than a million between them.

And that EastEnders rating was always a blatant error anyway...

Staggering figures, but oh so sweet

Also, More Talent got 1.5m.

11.9m is simply stunning, though.

Gob smackingly good.

That is really good...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...ot-Talent.html

That is fantastic!

Wow if the viewing figures are this good imagine how many viewers the final will get


BGT is officialy from now bigger than the Xfactor in terms of Viewers