Britain’s Got Talent wins battle of Saturday night

Britain’s Got Talent has fought back to edge ahead of BBC1’s the Voice in the ratings.

After being beaten for three successive weeks, the ITV1 talent search regained the lead to win the Saturday night battle for viewers.

BGT pulled in an average audience of 9.4 million last night, while the Voice – which screened the first of its live shows – was behind on 9.3 million.

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When ITV1’s +1 audience, watching the show on catch-up later in the evening, were included it had 9.9 million.

ITV chiefs have moved BGT to an 8:30pm slot to avoid an overlap for the two shows after the Voice consistently won when they went head-to-head.

Last week, when the two shows avoided a direct clash for the first time, ITV chiefs were privately grumbling about foul play when the Voice overran by three minutes which meant viewers were delayed in switching over, which had an impact on BGT’s audience.

An ITV spokesman said: “BGT is packed with thrills and spills, tears and laughter and we are delighted that it consistently continues to be such a firm favourite with viewers.”