Have you not seen the praise for it last night, do you miss all that.

#TheVoiceUK, with an average of 8.4m last night, had a bigger audience than any episode during the 2013 series.

How does that compare to X Factor over the series?

In terms of volume of posts you are probably correct but the ITV posters have lambasted The Voice on here for the last couple of years its hardly had an easy ride.

It's isn't TXF that is generally slated, but Cowell himself. He is a man who is very divisive in opinion and as long as Cowell is anywhere near British TV shows then you should be prepared for more criticism.

The rating for The Voice was good, but I thought it capable of doing more. However, what it does suggest is that maybe people DO like singing shows and there clearly is room in the schedules for both XF and TV. Early days of course, but the BBC must be pleased with that result. Let's see how it fares throughout its run.

There were criticisms in the previous two series' that Jessie J wasn't overly experienced to coach people and viewers felt a bit annoyed at that point. The same really can't be said about Kylie, so this may have strengthened the potential of the later stages a little.

Samuel just remember The Voice dropped to that level and that cost even more, so going by that i would say its an 'ok' rating. But not enough to keep it next year.

Last year's XFactor auditions on Saturday nights averaged 8.5m in the overnights. So the Voice was pretty much on a par. And let'snot forget,it is very likely that the Voice's ratings will go up next week and onwards due to the fantastic word of mouth. In the last two series, the ratings for the Voice have gone up every week for 4 consecutive weeks. If the same happens this year, then the Voice will be more popular than XF officially.

Well spot on for Splash and 0.2 higher for the Voice than I thought. A great start for the Voice and will be interesting to seems breakdown and where the peak came. As for Splash it was never going to withstand the Voice so while the number is terrible for a live reality show it could have been worse for Splash itself.

Of course I didn't miss it. SHOCK! The viewing public like a BBC LE show!!! Oh my God. Why do you feel it is a personal attack against TXF? Hardly anyone at all mentioned XF last night. Can't you just accept that The Voice was enjoyed by most who watched it? Including Saturday Night Takeaways producer!

Lies. The Voice has never fallen to 3.4m. On a Saturday night after 7pm, the Voice's lowest overnight rating to date is 5.6m.

It does make me laugh slightly that more than 3m people opted to watch Splash instead of The Voice.

The gimmick of the spinning chairs is what causes ratings to rise, i expect it will drop for the LIVE shows.

If people think 8.4million for the Voice is great [which it is], just wait for the ratings for the next few weeks. They'll be even higher, Splash will be crushed even more. Happy days.


XF ratings dropped for the live shows. Its auditions averaged higher than the live shows. The great thing about the Voice is there's only about 3-4 live shows, so that section of the competition will be over fairly quickly. The BBC has frontloaded the format with blind auditions which will definitely help its series average.

My problem with the Voice is that they always seemed so far up their own backsides, this seems to have been addressed with a much more fun vibe to the show.

The Voice dropped to 3.9m last year as viewers turned off the live shows.

I doubt you even like the show but just like it by default as it 'crushes' ITV and is a protest vote against TXF.

Agree that The Voice is likely to rise but remember that XF's auditions aired in August/September rather than the easier January slot. Also XF Saturday auditions averaged 8.8m.

Not to take anything away from The Voice's fantastic numbers last night though. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here - wonder if it can hit 10m?

People tuned into the Voice to see the changes especially Kylie. There was no competition from ITV. I don't honestly think that rating is going to grow as I found it a bit slow and flat. Maybe you have to be a Kylie fan to enjoy. But well done on getting that rating. I really didn't think it would.

On a Friday if fell to 3.9m, and considering how it started that was a terrible drop off. But i don't want to get into this discussion again.

Two things seem certain this morning.

TVUK is going to be on our screens a year from now.

And Splash won't.

Splash was always going to nose dive, and bomb, if it faced some competition.

What is hilarious is that ITV genuinely seemed to think last year they had discovered a hit show.

Now they realise it's just a shit show!

Good to see The Voice launching strongly. I hope it keeps the momentum going in the coming weeks.

Why do you seem to object to praise for The Voice? Its as if you feel praising it somehow denegrates XF. As far as I can see there is only you comparing and mentioning XF.

The BBC has started 2014 with a bang. Saturdays will be the strongest they've had in Q1 since the last Millenium. On Sunday nights, they're beating Dancing on Ice already and that's without Call the Midwife in the schedules - DOI itself hugely down year on year. They won the Monday 9pm slot even though traditionally that is Itv winning territory. Tuesday 9pm slot is cleaned up. Wednesday night is the only downer due to Waterloo Road. But Silent Witness is doing a great 5m+ job on Thursday and Friday nights. Itv simply cant compete. It's hilarious they actually believed Splash could do decently against the Voice.

And what's funny is that the current series of Splash is 7 weeks long, they extended it. So 5 more long weeks to go for Itv!

A very good start for The Voice, thought 7.5m would be more likely based on reaction to series 2. A very enjoyable start and the hope for them is to stay steady and do well after Blind Auditions stop.

Indeed. I watched the first series of The Voice and enjoyed the audition rounds. I also enjoyed The Battle rounds. Then when Holly Willoughby started saying "This is the biggest show on TV" it started to grate on me. The Voice became caught up in its initial ratings success and everything thereafter felt egotistic and contrived. I stopped watching.

I watched the first part of the first audition show of series 2 and Jessie J and Danny O Donahue seemed so self important and arrogant it felt like it was about them. Will.i.am seemed subdued and the show seemed like a caricature of the previous year. I turned it off after twenty minutes and didn't watch anymore of series 2.

So, I tuned in last night because I think Kylie is well fit, and it was like a brand new show! It didn't take itself seriously but was actually having fun. I was having fun whilst watching it. The Voice has really come a long way since last year and the BBC do have to be commended for that.

Well done anyway to the BBC, you have made the show better and Kylie was a good choice, although apparently Will lured her to join.

ITV is stronger in Feb/March/April time where ad revenue is higher.

Great rating for The Voice. Now it just needs to keep the audience. I felt last nights opener was pretty crap to be honest. Still Kylie is better than Jessie and Marvin is certainly alright to look at