Millions of viewers watch The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent

Millions of viewers tuned in to watch the return of Britain’s Got Talent and the debut of BBC One’s new talent competition The Voice.

In the past week the press have made much of the “rivalry” between the two shows. The Voice UK launched last night on BBC One at 7pm. It’s judges, or coaches as they are also known, line-up consists of Will.i.am, Tom Jones, Jessie J and Danny O’Donoghue. According to overnight figures The Voice had an average audience of 8.4 million viewers between 7pm and 8.20pm with a peak audience of 9.6 million viewers. During the twenty minutes that The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent clashed it was the BBC One show that was the victor with 8.9 million viewers.

Britain’s Got Talent returned to ITV1 for a new season and another new line-up of judges. Amanda Holden was joined by a returning Simon Cowell and new judges Alesha Dixon, poached from Strictly Come Dancing, and David Walliams. Britain’s Got Talent averaged 9.4 million viewers with a peak of 10.9 million viewers but lost out during its twenty minute clash with The Voice with only 6.7 million viewers.

So it is certainly a picture of mixed fortunes for both shows; The Voice won the 20 minute clash and launched with impressive ratings but overall Britain’s Got Talent had more viewers. It will be interesting to see though how ratings play out for both shows over subsequent editions.