Britain’s Got Talent performs well

Britain’s Got Talent performed well in the weekend ratings war, pulling in the highest overall viewing figures despite competition from the big FA cup match.

The second audition show, presented by Ant and Dec, even managed to beat its return ratings, with more than 12.3 million peak viewers compared to last week’s peak audience of 11.4 million viewers.

Another line-up of acts were eager to get past the judges – Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan – to win the prize of £100,000 and a slot at this year’s Royal Variety Performance – securing ITV1 with a high 50.6% average audience share between 7.55pm and 8.55pm on Saturday evening.

ITV1 also scored with its Live FA Cup coverage on Sunday – the Everton v Manchester United semi-final game peaked with 8.2 million viewers.

The match, which finally ended 4-2 to Everton after a penalty shootout, pulled in more than 5 million average viewers and a 39.5% share from 3.15pm onwards.

Elsewhere, Marco Pierre White’s celebrity Hell’s Kitchen managed to attract reasonable ratings for ITV1 this weekend – peaking on Saturday evening with more than 5 million viewers and a 22.5% average share from 8.55pm onwards.

Meanwhile, BBC One managed to shine during the day on Saturday, with a peak-run of Rugby Union, Final Score, Outtake TV and Robin Hood.

However, the channel’s new entertainment show Tonight’s the Night, hosted by John Barrowman, failed to hold the peak audience during its hour-long slot after Robin Hood but did secure over 5 million peak viewers and a 23.9% average share.

Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.