ITV are idiots quite frankly, 12 million peak excluding +1 suggests it's peak with +1 was near 13 million, with ~12.6 million.

Had the two not overlapped chances are this could have been Britain's Got Talent's best ever start.

EDIT - Okay, probably not as good as 2009 but still very good.

The Voice 8.9m, 39%, peaked at 9.97m. BGT 9.3m(excl HD) peak 10m. Voice wins 15 minute head to head.

Source: Richard Osman (that bloke from Pointless).

Massive peak audience of 12.6m/50% (av audience across 65mins 10.4m/42%) watched #BGT last night. All figs inc ITV1+1

Source: Jenny Cummins

So the gap on the overlap narrowed significantly which is interesting but didn't appear to dent The Voice or massively enhance BGT. These ratings prove there is room for both shows in the schedule.

Worth noting the BGT figures going around will be slightly different: the tape-checked figures (20:05-21:05) will be higher than the full-slot numbers (20:00-21:05).
----------------
It appears both BGT and TVUK rose about +0.5m compared to last week.

And they BOTH went up! BBC & ITV can feel very happy.

Yeah, last week the full slot number was 9.9m and tapechecked was 10.0m. Either way though it increased week on week which I'm quite surprised at - ITV will be pleased. That 12.6m is BGT's highest peak for an auditions show since 2009 - suggesting that the average would have been in the high 10s or even 11m without the overlap. The average was still up +9% vs show 2 last year though, so ITV should be pleased, and relieved. Great for The Voice too, I wonder if it will continue to increase throughout the auditions? The gap during the overlap seems smaller than last week - maybe more people recorded BGT this week to watch from the start rather than just tuning in at 8:20?

Looking at previous tweets, the 10.4m for BGT would seem to be the full slot rating.

#TakeMeOut averages approx 4.8m

Source: John Williams


Yeah, I'm a little surprised the gap in the overlap was only 1.3m yesterday considering it was about 3.3m last week. It could partly be due to All Star Family Fortunes providing a higher lead-in than last week's TV Burp so more people were watching ITV1 around 8pm compared to last week? Will be interesting to see a breakdown again.

Edit: Actually, the gap in the overlap was 2m according to Sam Hodges:

8-8.20: The Voice 9.6 BGT 7.6

Yeah possibly, ASFF should have got a solid 4m or so. Also perhaps the shows are developing more differing audiences, as it seems to be that the strongest positive response towards The Voice is coming from those who dislike Cowell's shows, whilst the strongest negative reviews came from those who like Cowell's shows, so maybe this week there was less of an audience overlap between the two shows.

I'm surprised that Take Me Out isn't getting more of a boost from being after BGT though - perhaps the late slot is harming it?

He quotes the "2m more than any channel" which I would imagine includes the separate ITV1 and ITV1HD as separate channels thus losing the missing people in the overlap.

2m looks more like the right gap, although both shows did better during that 20 mins than last week.

What would be interesting would be to see the 5 minute breakdown of the overlap, to see whether BGT increases or The Voice declines during the 20 mins and to see how close they are by the end of the clash - I suspect the gap may be quite a bit smaller than 2m by 8:10/8:15pm (not sure when BGT ran ads last night).

I don't think BGT's first ad break last night was in the first 20 minutes, which would have brought its average down last week and consequently The Voice's up, if viewers had switched back to the BBC for a few minutes.

Fantastic for The Voice, 9m is awesome. Can it go up again next week?

I didnt expect however that Britain's Got Talent would be further ahead this week and the gap didnt narrow:

Week 1: The Voice UK: 8.4m, Britain's Got Talent: 9.4m = 1m difference
Week 2: The Voice UK: 9.0m, Britain's Got Talent: 10.3m = 1.3m difference

I didnt think BGT would be able to do that, so well done to it.

The two shows are helping each other IMO, The Voice is actually helping rather than hindering BGT by getting a big number of viewers on the sofa. Inheritance is often spoken about as if it can only help one channel, but these days it goes cross-channel and this is what we are seeing here.

Whoever has the later slot will win IMO, and ITV certainly won't give that up.

That's exactly what's happening. The Voice is a great lead in for BGT. ITV's plan to kill The Voice was as effective as a pea shooter against a tank. Well done to BGT too as the revamped version really is paying dividends. BGT will always have an edge in the ratings as it has a much better timeslot.

Very careless considering the BBC usually go to great lengths to edit out anything which may no longer be valid. I guess though as it is a website rather than a premium rate number they couldn't be arsed.


I was expecting them to meet somewhere in the middle last night and The Voice possibly overtake BGT - so good for both they are growing.

Does the Easter weekend usually see a dip in viewers?

I'm still pretty sure there filming one more series of Wipeout btw!

Nothing bad about last night whatsoever it seems. Also BGT doing better than I expected and rising nearly a million.

Half would have expect The Voice to be up considering that BGT was so much. Especially since its a new show, some people seem to just be 'sitting it out'.

I think some people like to get away for Easter but if it's another cold weekend there'll still be many people staying in. Couldn't call last night and don't want to call next week either. I will stay on the fence on this one!

The BBC will be thrilled with The Voice. I think realistically they never expected it to beat BGT. But to get an audience, virtually SCD size, for a new show against BGT is pretty darn good!

With the right sort of manipulating and hype, next years The Voice could easily see off BGT. At the moment the only show at risk of losing out in the longterm is BGT.

No - the remaining series was filmed over a year ago. They've aired the two celeb specials from it back in September but are yet to air the main series.

And don't know how long the BBC have been sitting on this decision but with it being axed it makes playing out the two celeb specials of Winter Wipeout in Spring even more bizarre - they should have held them back until Christmas and aired them as the final ever episodes.

Just looking at the averages: as BGT had 7.6m during the 20-min clash against TVUK, it means the rest of the episode must've averaged about 11.2m for the episode overall to average c10.3m. If BGT wasn't clashing against TVUK (starting at 8.20pm for example), and the first 20mins of its episodes were getting about 9m (like last year) and the final 45 mins continued to average 11.2m, its overall average would've been about 10.7m.

The Voice UK itself built up to a peak of 10.2m at 7.55pm and then dipped slightly to 9.6m between 8-8.20pm. If there was no BGT clash in that 20-min period, its audience would've gone up to about 10.4m between 8-8.20pm. And if that were the case, its average would've been approximately 9.2m instead of 9.0m.

So the overlap is denting the averages for both shows (BGT's slightly more than TVUK's), I don't see why ITV can't move BGT to 8.20pm in a couple of weeks' time with Take Me Out over by then. Yes, it would mean TVUK would have a better chance of rating higher, but they would see a pretty good improvement in BGT's averages if they did that.


Yep, in the past there has been a dip in the total number of viewers watching TV on Easter weekend. Last year for example, there were about 2m fewer viewers watching on Easter Saturday compared to the next non-Bank holiday Saturday in the same timeslot. So due to the Easter effect, I reckon both TVUK and BGT will be down next week, although their shares may well be very similar to their previous episodes.

I think we all expected a rise for The Voice from last week, but a drop for BGT. Room for both shows, no eccentrics or vulnerable adults/children on The Voice, whereas BGT viewers expect them in droves.

Another thread has just picked up on EastEnders omnibus now being late on a Friday night for the foreseeable. Wonder if it's a permanent move, or just a temporary solution to avoid a clash with the many spring/summer Sunday sporting fixtures, Olympics, etc..

Great to see Saturday night TV alive at this time of the year. Great figures for BGT and The Voice last night.

The BBC must be delighted that The Voice is turning out to be such a big hit.