BBC’s The Voice wins its latest ratings battle

BBC1’s The Voice continued its winning streak by beating Britain’s Got Talent in the ratings for a third successive week, after days of embarrassment for Simon Cowell.

The “battle” stage of the BBC show – in which coaches whittled down their acts in a series of head-to-head sing-offs – drew an average audience of 9.9 million on Saturday.

Britain’s Got Talent mustered 9.7 million on ITV1 – including viewers who tuned in late – for a 75-minute show, the first time since both series began last month that there has been no overlap.

ITV moved its show to a later slot of 8:30pm after repeatedly losing out when the shows had a 20-minute clash.

And it had been quietly confident that the move would reap benefits when viewers switched channels when The Voice finished.

However, it was still not enough to triumph, capping a difficult week after revelations about Cowell’s private life were revealed in a new book.