TV Overnights: Britain’s Got Talent dominates the bank holiday ratings
ITV1’s popular Britain’s Got Talent series dominated the bank holiday weekend ratings as the judges came ever-closer to naming this year’s winner.
The first live semi-final saw eight acts perform to win a place in Saturday’s final and the chance to win £100,000, as well as slot at the Royal Variety Show. The 90-minute show pulled in a high of more than 10.6 million viewers and an impressive 40.9% share between 7.30pm and 9pm last night.
ITV1’s double-helping of Coronation Street, carefully scheduled to complete its bank holiday Monday line-up around Britain’s Got Talent, helped the channel to secure a prime time peak-run between 7pm and 10pm.
The first of Corrie’s special week-long line-up, which will see the soap broadcast at the later time of 9pm to conclude the much-anticipated Tony Gordon storyline, attracted 7.7 million peak viewers and a 36.5% average share between 7pm and 7.30pm.
The second episode, which aired between Britain’s Got Talent and the results show at 9pm, banked a high of 9.8 million viewers and a 38.2% share. The Britain’s Got Talent “X-Factor” style results, meanwhile, picked up over 9.8 million peak viewers and a 38% share between 9.30pm and 10pm.
ITV1’s ratings-winning Monday night line-up stole the bank holiday limelight from its rival terrestrial channels, despite competition from BBC One’s hour-long Eastenders and BBC Two’s new line-up.
At 8pm, BBC One’s double-length Eastenders pulled in a low4.9 million average viewers and a 19% share. The channel’s flagship soap usually banks almost double the number of viewers on an average day.
Meanwhile, BBC One’s 9pm peak-hour programme, The Big Personality Test: A Child of Our Time Special, attracted 2.3 million average viewers and a 9.4% share.
Over on BBC Two, the new Springwatch 2010 picked up 2.5 million viewers between 8pm and 9pm, while the channel’s one-off drama The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister pulled in 1.8 million viewers between 9pm and 10.30pm.
Channel 4 and Five also failed to compete with ITV1 – Channel 4’s new documentary Building Britain’s Ultimate Warship attracted 1.1 million average viewers between 7.30pm and 9pm, while Five’s Rush Hour film settled on just 794,000 viewers between 8pm and 10pm.
On Sunday, ITV1’s midday Britain’s Got Talent repeat pulled in 1.9 million average viewers, while the channel’s coverage of the Live International Football game between Japan and England scored a high of 4.6 million viewers. ITV1 also held the 9pm peak-hour top spot with Lewis, which attracted 6 million average viewers.
However, BBC One had some luck, picking up the highest ratings throughout the morning slot and pulling in a high of 4.8 million viewers for its Formula 1: The Turkish Grand Prix Live coverage.
BBC One’s sports line-up also dominated the Saturday day-time ratings, although Britain’s Got Talent stole the prime time top spot for ITV1 once again with 9.6 million peak viewers.
BBC One’s Eurovision Song Contest 2010 did manage to win back the peak share after Britain’s Got Talent, however, with a high of 7.8 million viewers at 11pm.
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.