Britain’s Got Talent steals the show

Britain’s Got Talent stole the show once again last night with more than 14 million peak viewers between 8.30pm and 10pm.

The third semi-final kept the programme’s ratings as high as ever, attracting over 12.7 million average viewers and almost a 50% audience share for ITV1 during the peak-slot.

Another eight acts performed in front of judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden, for their chance to reach Saturday’s grand finale show.

ITV1’s popular talent contest pulled in more than four times the number of viewers compared with its nearest rival during the all-important 9pm to 10pm slot.

BBC One’s new David Attenborough documentary, Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link, attracted three million average viewers and a 11.7% share between 9pm to 10pm.

Five was the only other terrestrial channel to pick up more than one million viewers during the peak-hour – its long running crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation attracted over 1.8 million average viewers and a 7.1% share.

Meanwhile, BBC Two’s new Simon Schama’s John Donne slipped just below the one million mark after the first fifteen minutes, securing an average of 956,000 viewers.

Channel 4;s The Lost World War One Bunker: A Time Team Special fell even further with just below 750,000 viewers and a 3.1% share.

Overall, it was ITV1’s night, with a peak run of Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Britain’s Got Talent, News at Ten and the start of the one-off special UEFA Champions League Final Preview, ahead of today’s big Manchester United v Barcelona match.

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.