TV Overnights: New Britain’s Got Talent starts on a high of 9.4m viewers
ITV1’s new Britain’s Got Talent series started on a high of more than 9.4 million viewers during the Saturday night prime time slot.
Ant and Dec kicked off another search to find the best performers in the UK, with new judges Michael McIntyre and David Hasselhoff joining Amanda Holden on the panel.
The Saturday night show banked the top spot for ITV1 with more than 8.9 million average viewers and a 36.6% audience share.
ITV1 dominated the ratings from 5pm onwards on Saturday, starting with its coverage of the FA Cup Football, which saw the two Manchester teams meet at Wembley. The game, which ended 1-0 to Manchester City, scored a high of more than 8.1 million peak viewers.
Sing if You Can, another new edition to ITV1’s Saturday night line-up, followed with 4.7 million viewers and in the post-BGT slot the new series of Piers Morgan’s Life Stories (with Russell Brand) pulled in 3.8 million viewers and a 18.4% share.
However, BBC One’s sports coverage led the Saturday daytime ratings. From 6am, Live Formula 1: The Chinese Grand Prix qualifying race attracted more than two million peak viewers, despite the early start.
Coverage of the Live Snooker: The World Championship pulled in 1.1 million average viewers in the 2.30pm slot, while Final Score picked up over two million peak viewers in the 4.30pm slot.
It was a similar story on Sunday – BBC One secured the peak audience throughout the day, while ITV1 banked the prime time ratings.
The Chinese Grand Prix achieved an average audience of 3.2 million viewers and a 43.7% share from 7am onwards. Coverage of this year’s Virgin London Marathon followed with 2.6 million viewers and a 31.3% average share from 10.15am.
In the Sunday evening slot, ITV1’s popular Lewis banked 5.7 million viewers and a 23.5% average share between 8pm and 10pm, beating BBC One’s Britain’s Royal Weddings documentary to the peak-hour top spot.
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.