At least they've finally seen sense even if they have taken a few weeks about it. They've started at 8.20pm a few times before so this will be the latest start since the first series. It's possibly not ideal but even if there is a drop off towards the end, it's not going to take it down as low as it has been against The Voice.

I read the back end of last year that SyFy had bought it.

Presumably in response to The Voice, Channel 5's Once Upon a Time is moving to 9pm as of 22/4/12.

BGT moving to 8.30pm ought to boost the averages of both shows. Just looking at The Voice UK's breakdown from Saturday:
The audience was building +0.2m every 5 minutes or so between 7.30-8pm before dipping when BGT started at 8pm. Had BGT not been airing in those 20 minutes, the audience would've continued to go up by +0.2m every 5 minutes and it would've averaged about 9.8m instead of 9.5m overall between 7-8.20pm. Had that particular episode been airing until 8.30pm (instead of 8.20pm) like the battle episode, it'd have given the show even more time to build its audience, so in that situation it would've averaged about 10m overall. So the battle episode in a couple of weeks' time ought to rate well, there's an automatic +0.5m boost already there waiting for it, which should at least cover up any potential decline the battle stage would've got.

As for Britain's Got Talent's breakdown:
The first 20-minutes averaged 6.2m while the remaining 45-minutes averaged 10.2m, giving it a 9.1m average. Last year the first 20-minutes of BGT's auditions episodes were rating between 8-9m, had the above episode not faced TVUK the first 20-mins would've got c9m (aside from the clash, eps this year are rating and peaking higher) and that episode would've averaged 9.9m, so a +0.8m boost to what it actually got [for the full slot figure]. With Saturday 21st not being an Easter weekend that week, it should be looking at a 10m+ average. But I still think it will be pretty close in the averages between TVUK and BGT, as both shows will experience a boost (though BGTs boost should be bigger).


Last year's BGT launch show ran between 8.20-9.50pm and in 2009, the final auditions show ran between 8.20-9.50pm. Both of those episodes rated well, and BGT has started at 8.20pm for other audition episodes before (though running at 1hr) and they have generally rated very well. Here's a breakdown of last year's launch:
The audience tends to build up right through to 9-9.30pm and then stabilises or drops off a little after then. I think the ideal schedule, if there was no Voice, would be 8.15-9.30pm but I don't think the 8.30-9.45pm schedule will do any significant damage to its figures. Certainly running 8.30-9.45pm (with no clash against TVUK) is a better situation than 8-9.15pm (with a 30-min clash).

I thought it always started at 8pm, and had done "forever", that's why the clash is all BBC's fault for running over 8pm .

Dan Wooton has just tweeted that BGT will be moved this Saturday as well?! Can they make last minute changes since the schedule was locked in last week?

That's bad for advertisers, good for ITV ratings I guess.

Yep, ITV has confirmed The Cube is airing at 7.30pm. Not sure what's airing after BGT, would seem a waste if they didn't make use of that lead-in (even after considering the bad track record shows in that slot have had). The Cube itself normally is less popular than All Star Family Fortunes and TV Burp, both of which have had 3.5m and 3.3m against The Voice in recent weeks, so that could be down to about 3m or slightly below.

Might be true but if Dan Wooton's the source I wouldn't believe it just yet. He doesn't know anything, he just guesses stuff then says it as if it's fact.

There's a slight difference between the launch show and just a bog standard episode though. And 2009 was in general a bumper year for Talent so I'm not sure that's an entirely great guide either. I do agree though that running late is certainly preferable and likely to do far less damage than running against The Voice though.

TV guides etc will all be wrong, but if only a "hardcore" 6m are watching that portion up against The Voice anyway they probably figure it's worth conceding defeat in this very non-subtle way.

BGT has been the sort of show where the launch episodes normally don't rate that much better than the other audition episodes anyway. As for 2009, sure it was a bumper year, but that particular 8.20-9.50pm auditions show rated just as well (if not better) than how the earlier 8-9pm and 8.20-9.20pm episodes had been doing the previous few weeks - which suggests that the late finish back then wasn't really much of an issue in terms of denting the average and I suspect it would be a similar thing now as well.

Does anyone know when the BGT live shows are due to start.

Also does anyone have the ratings for Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant on ITV 2 last night

This should have happened ages ago. So many stories being written now about ITV moving BGT and it's an embarrassment that could have been avoided much sooner. We all told them!

US Ratings Tuesday April 10

Tuesday night proved to be that rare thing – a good night for NBC. Not only did they tie the night with Fox but their entire line-up bucked the trend of the night and was up. Biggest Loser was up 10% vs. last week, The Voice Results up 9% to lead the night with some comfort and Fashion Star was up an impressive sounding 20% at 10PM.

Elsewhere Glee returned to Fox with a whimper dropping to a series low. The return of Glee did however help New Girl it was up vs. last week and that momentum carried through to Raising Hope which climbed three tenths restored to its 9:30 slot.

CBS had an absolutely nightmare by their standards. NCIS dropped 11% at 8PM whilst spin-off NCIS: LA was down to a series low at 9PM and at 10PM Unforgettable also hit a series low. Series lows also dominated ABC where Last Man Standing dropped 11% to a series low, Cougar Town was down 6% and at 10PM in its season finale Body of Proof dropped 5% vs last week. The big terrifying headline for ABC though will be Dancing with the Stars which was down 18% and posted its lowest ever results show rating.

ABC
8PM: Last Man Standing – 1.7 [6.72]
8:30PM: Cougar Town – 1.5 [4.96]
9PM: Dancing with the Stars – 2.3 [13.02]
10PM: Body of Proof – 1.9 [10.17]

CBS
8PM: NCIS – 3.1 [17.31]
9PM: NCIS: LA – 2.3 [12.80]
10PM: Unforgettable – 1.8 [9.48]

Fox
8PM: Glee – 2.7 [6.69]
9PM: New Girl – 2.7 [5.27]
9:30PM: Raising Hope – 1.9 [3.95]

NBC
8PM: Biggest Loser – 2.2 [6.69]
9PM: The Voice Results – 3.5 [8.87]
10PM: Fashion Star – 1.8 [4.65]

The CW
8PM: 90210 [r] – 0.3 [0.76]
9PM: Ringer – 0.5 [1.22]

It couldn't have happened in previous weeks because Take Me Out was still on.

Whats going to happen the following week when The Voice results show starts? I can't see them starting it at 9.45? Will they do a combined results and performance show?
Will BGT have to move to 9.15pm

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out for the the first live show of The Voice. If they run a results shows from 9.45pm - 10.15pm on BBC1 how will ITV react to that? They might have to hand a massive lead-in right to them or push BGT even later. I seem to remember it the BGT launch episode in 2007 was quite late on a Saturday night - might have been after 9pm - can anyone remember?

I agree that it was disapointing and felt more BBC2 really.

But sub 1m? really? Nothing at 10:35pm on BBC1 ever goes below 2m, it's one of the easiest slots in the schedule as it gets a 5m lead in. Whether it is a brand new series or a 100 million times repeat of Would I Lie to You, they all get over 2m!

I doubt The Voice is going to run much beyond 90 minutes (and certainly it shouldn't). There's no reason why the can't do the live shows in 90 minutes. A separate Sunday results show now looks increasingly likely though.

I think you've run out of straw now Andy

Namely because 'Take Me Out' was on for a reason...it was holding the fort until BGT started...in APRIL!

Its fine. BGT will benefit and be up year on year by quite a bit.
I'm not sure if it'll win the night (I expect a sharp rise in The Voice for the Battle Rounds) - but it should do!

But 'Take Me Out was on!' is a crap excuse and you know it. It'd have done those ratings on a bit later anyway!
Which would have been better for ITV overall!

Maybe we'll see some more clashes in 3 weeks between The Voice and BGT, either 2 hour episodes of The Voice or separate results show. So Itv shouldnt breath a sign of relief just yet.

Over in America, good that The Voice went up compared to last week. It is easily outperforming Dancing witht the Stars too.

In fairness they could have easily juggled the schedule and aired Take Me Out earlier. Especially after seeing that the later slot and Talent lead-in wasn't helping Take Me Out and how badly that Voice clash was denting Talent.

There wasn't any time to do that, they've only been on 3 weeks, you'd need at least 2 to get an idea at what is going on.


Sorry but that's wrong, Take Me Out wouldn't have finished until 11:05pm last week, had they pushed back BGT to start after The Voice had finished, that wouldn't have been acceptable.

I'm not even sure BBC1 have enough room for a results show on Saturday nights. Even if they did, they don't have any 75 minute shows to run while BGT is on so they'd probably not be able to start The Voice on the junction.