Ratings victory for Voice as Walliams makes up numbers

The reality television war waged on over the weekend with The Voice claiming victory against Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) in the ratings.

During the crossover after 8pm when the two shows were shown simultaneously for 20 minutes, an average of 11.8 million viewers tuned into the BBC1 talent show, with just 5.8 million watching BGT.

The figures come after ITV bosses backed down by shifting BGT to a later viewing slot to avoid a further head-to-head clash with the rival show.

ITV1 will screen Simon Cowell’s talent contest at 8.30pm on 21 April – half an hour later than previous shows in this series.

However, ITV chiefs took comfort when BGT took its highest peak audience of the series.

A total of 12.2 million tuned into the show last night – 12.9 million including the channel’s +1 strand.

It was the highest of the night with The Voice taking a peak audience of 12.1 million.

During last night’s BGT one group bidding for fame got an extra member when judge David Walliams joined them on stage.

The comic, who is a panellist on the show alongside Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden, teamed up with the five-piece Show Bears for their own unique take on The Weather Girls’ It’s Raining Men.

Meanwhile, coaches in The Voice – Jessie J, Tom Jones, Will.i.am and Danny O’Donoghue – finalised the line-up of their teams.

Next week the series moves on to the “battle rounds” section, with the coaches pitting their own acts against each other to whittle them down in head-to-head contests.