Britain’s Got Talent hit a high of almost 12m viewers

Britain’s Got Talent remained the highlight of the weekend with a peak audience of nearly 12 million viewers on Saturday evening.

Over 11.1 million average viewers tuned in to see more hopefuls audition for a chance to perform at the Royal Variety Show in front of judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan, securing ITV1 with an impressive 48.3% average share between 8.15pm and 9.15pm.

ITV1 had a good overall run on Saturday, attracting the highest ratings during You’ve Been Framed!, All Star Mr & Mrs and half of Primeval, as well as a 30-minute slot of ITV’s Best Ever Ads, which was hosted by Phillip Schofield.

However, BBC One stole the show on both other evenings this weekend, with its classic Friday-night peak run of Have I Got News for You, Reggie Perrin, BBC News at Ten and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

Have I Got News For You, the satirical current affairs quiz with Jack Dee, banked the highest ratings of the evening with over 5.5 million peak viewers and a 23.1% share between 9pm and 9.30pm.

On Sunday, Last of the Summer Wine, Countryfile and Inspector George Gently secured the peak audience for BBC One from 6.30pm onwards.

The second episode in the four-part George Gently series, starring Martin Shaw, pulled in the most viewers with a high of more than 5.4 million.

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.