Just clocked that 50% share as well - incredible.

Does the 11.9m include YouTube viewing too?

Oh well, high water-mark I suppose after the Scottish woman has been plastered over all media for the past 7 days solid. Even ITV can't keep the bandwagon going until she next genuinely appears as a contestant on the show without making the result appear a foregone conclusion (if it isn't already) and favouring her over all other contestants, making it "The Susan Wotsername Show".

Or can they?

Excellent ratings for Britain's Got Talent and more than 50% share! ITV won't be too thrilled that Tonights the Night beat Primeval but Hells Kitchen seemed to make use of its lead-in to do better than its launch episode.

Surely the most eye-catching ratings stats from yesterday evening, yes?

Next week they've got the Kelly Brook debacle. It won't be as high, but 10m-ish is still a possibility and it'll still be the #1 show on TV. And her name is Susan Boyle, you know that. Larry King, Demi Moore and Oprah know that.

Results have been a foregone conclusion on many shows. Paul Potts was always going to win series 1, Alesha Dixon was destined to win her year of SCD, Leona Lewis was certain to win X Factor. They still get good ratings.

More proof (as if the Girls Aloud Party and TV Burp figures last autumn didn't offer enough) that once you get the core ITV demographic to put its bums on the sofa en masse on a Saturday night, and disengage brains for an hour or so, flipping about with the remote becomes a low priority?

Yeah, Boyle, Doyle, Gargoyle, whatever.

Millions more will have forgotten in a few weeks from now, like nobody much remembers the names of the fat lad opera singer from the first series or the cheeky little chappie who splashed about with an umbrella in series 2...

Except if CoM comes on.

I bet that's what the producers of Colour of Money thought as well. Didn't work out so well.

7 million of the 12 million watching BGT did still change channel. And the BGT isn't even the core ITV demographic. If it was, they wouldn't spend their weeks desperately chasing young viewers who aren't interested in their crime drama but do watch XF/BGT.

Brilliant for BGT and Hells Kitchen last night, will be interesting to see if Hells Kitchen can take advantage of last nights ratings revival for next week
Primeval deserves more than that, hopefully it will improve over the coming weeks

Hell's Kitchen did really well with its lead in and I'm not surprised it kept the audience throughout the show, it's the first time I've watched it and it was quite gripping with all the arguments going on.

I think it will just continue to fluctuate upwards and downwards depending on the competition. Stability is not something this show is likely to enjoy, but it should finish handsomely and achieve a respectable series average.

The episode of Hells Kitchen that was shown last night should deffinatly make people want to see more, so we should see roughly the same figure tonight, especially as it is up against No1 Ladies Dective Agency, which rates poorly.

Robin Hood clearly starting way too early given its share - would likely have beaten TTN's ratings if they'd swapped. I'm bemused as to why the BBC aren't giving it the better slot considering when they've put it on a decent time it performed really well.

Primeval recovered from last week but still probably a bit low for ITV's liking - it's about 1.5m off last year's average.

Yes I noticed that too, especially as it had 30 mins start on MOTD.
BGT and the Cowell based reality formats are the tv of the moment. Skilfully orchestrated for extreme hype by a team who obviously know what they are doing, the ratings are not that far off 4 million ahead of the soaps. The BBC held up pretty well considering and must be grateful that BGT is only one hour of the week-the lottery being the sacrificial lamb this week. No real surprise that the reality types held on to increase Hells Kitchen's numbers.
There is no answer to BGT for the BBC. Despite all the catcalls from various threads on here Tonights the Night is not dire, but the BBC is in danger of being sidelined by bad reputation for all its attempts at entertainment shows(apart from SCD).This is mainly due to the immense hold Simon Cowell has, and for which, with still declining viewing figures, ITV must be eternally grateful.

Good night for both channels, VERY good for BGT!! And Hell's Kitchen for me is the surprise... highest rating of series so far!

Good for the F1 as well, the race should rate very well as well.

I pointed out Britain's Got Talent's ratings would be beyond brilliant, though I thought everyone knew this.

Glad that Hell's Kitchen rose above 5 million viewers, and should do well tomorrow as well being it's a Sunday night, traditionally a good night for ITV.

As much as everyone's going on about Britain's Got Talent, I think the most astonishing ratings of yesterday was Match of the Day beating the FA Cup Semi Final highlights.

I am by no means pro BBC, but the title 'Match of the Day' does so much for ratings, I feel.

This is why I hope ITV consider bringing back 'The Big Match Live' as a strand with the highlights programme being 'The Big Match'. Surely this would add some stability and confidence into ITV's football output.

Then again, there were more games, albeit lower down the table ones, on BBC1. Every Wembley fixture is boring because of the awful pitch & Arsenal v Chelsea didn't have the ebb and flow of a game played at a neutral ground. A lot of people are against the Semi-Finals at Wembley thing.

But still, it's amazing such an important fixture, the FA Cup Semi-Finals, which was probably only seen live by a small percentage of football lovers, could only muster 2ish million, with MOTD beating it.

Maybe it's the lack of importance with the FA Cup, or worse, a lack of confidence in ITV's sporting coverage.

I still think ITV should have stuck with Formula One, Champions League and The Boat Race, bringing in high brow audiences. I also genuinely feel a lot of people had respect for ITV's loyalty with these sports, and it's a shame it's all gone down the pot.

ITV were building on the sports, with more motor racing on ITV4 and UEFA Cup ties getting bigger and better reputations on ITV1 and ITV4.

As much as I'm relieved ITV haven't yet got rid of the Champions League, I do think getting rid of the Formula One was ridiculous. Both of these competitions are gems, popular & irreplaceable.
The FA Cup is losing popularity & isn't as important in the sport as it used to be. Also, all ITV have done with it is emphasise upsets and made awful mistakes.

Rant over (sorry)

I stlll do not know what George Sampson does.

Oh...it is.

Why did ITV limit last night's show to the hour anyway?

Surely they could have padded it out to 90 mins, or more, like last week, particularly with all the Mrs Doyle material?

As for the 'sacrificial lamb', they should be putting Robin Hood opposite BGT. It showed last week that it will more than hold its own, as it did in autumn 2007 against BGT - The Autumn Edition (aka X Factor).

OMG, the F1 live qualifying broadcast rated at 1 million viewers (41.4%)!

- Australian Grand Prix comparison
- Malaysian Grand Prix comparison

Note: I'm not going to include Highlights show in comparision as they will likely not be reported.

Chinese Grand Prix - 2008
Qualifying LIVE - 629,000 (22.92%)
Qualifying RR - 1.33m (11.53%)
Total Quali Audience - 1.96m

Race LIVE - 2.44m (40.67%)
Race RR - 1.99m (13.59%)
Total Race Audience - 4.43m

Chinese Grand Prix - 2009
Qualifying LIVE - 1m (41.4%)
Qualifying RR - 1.9m (24.1%)
Total Quali Audience - 2.9m

Race LIVE - ????
Race RR - ????
Total Race Audience - ????

Comparison - Qualifying Combined
02.90m - 2009 Chinese Grand Prix [increase of 47.9%]
01.96m - 2008 Chinese Grand Prix

Comparison - Race Combined
0?.??m - 2009 Chinese Grand Prix
04.43m - 2008 Chinese Grand Prix



Great for the F1! The fact that 1m people watched Qualifying from 06:00 to 08:15 tells you something.

Steady on - 11.9m is v. good, but after all the hype this week, it's not all that stellar.

And it's still 4.5m behind the sort of ratings the animated adventures of a inventor and his pet dog can pull in for the other side...

And don't forget, the 2008 Chinese GP was at the back end of last season, with the title race coming to its climax when you would expect more interest.

Yes, but didn't that have to air on Christmas Day, in an Eastenders sandwich, when everyone watches BBC1 by default, to get those ratings? As opposed to BGT, which aired on a Saturday night with nice weather.

Also, BGT got more than double its nearest rival, Wallace and Gromit couldn't manage that, could it?

(No disrespect to W&G, it was great and deserved to do well).

15-Minute Breakdown graph for last night: http://i40.tinypic.com/or2mj7.jpg