Viewers Flock To Britain’s Got Talent Semi-Final

Last night saw the first semi-final of ITV1’s awesome variety contest Britain’s Got Talent, with the angelic voiced Dominic Smith departing our screens after the judges decided he didn’t quite cut the mustard.

Dominic’s departure leaves hot favourite Paul Potts up against Damon Scott in the big final show on Sunday, and with a peak audience of eight million adults for last night’s show, ITV1 can expect more bumper viewing figures as the public tunes in to find out who wins.

The show had an average audience of seven million adults across its hour long running time (a 32.1% share of viewing), easily beating the other terrestrial offerings on at the same time.

Runner up on the night was undoubtedly Dalziel And Pascoe on BBC One. The detective show collared a peak of 5.1 million adults (a 23.2% share of viewing) and a similar number of viewers stayed with it for its hour long duration.

With all these viewers flocking to BBC One and ITV, that could only mean one thing for Big Brother on Channel 4.

For the second night running, the reality show was completely destroyed by ITV1’s decision to air a programme featuring people who actually have some talent.

Big Brother drew a peak audience of 2.2 million adults (a 10.1% share of viewing) in its 9pm slot, although with an eviction show tonight, that figure must surely increase.

Following on from Big Brother on Channel 4 at 10pm came a new series of My Name Is Earl. However, the anarchic comedy managed a peak of just 1.3 million adults.

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, ITV2 and Sky One.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com