Britain’s Got Talent had more than 10 million viewers for the second week in a row, more than double ITV’s Saturday night average for the slot.
The Simon Cowell talent show, which for its second outing featured dance group Boyband and singer Becky O’Brien, had 10.1 million viewers, a huge 46.6% share of the audience from 8pm.
BBC1 drama Atlantis, now into its last series, could only manage 2.5 million viewers (11.6%) from 8.25pm, a quarter of the audience for Britain’s Got Talent.
Saturday night’s audience is understood to be up 120% on ITV’s three-month slot average.
But there was not much of a halo effect from Cowell’s show, with neither of ITV’s Ninja Warrior UK (3.7 million from 7pm) or sports panel show Play to the Whistle (3.2 million from 9.15pm) managing to break the 4 million mark.
Britain’s Got Talent returned for its ninth series last week with 10.1 million (45.7%), sixth biggest in the all-time list of Britain’s Got Talent launches since it returned in 2007.
Top slot geared up for a car show
The second series of Channel 4’s For the Love of Cars launched in Top Gear’s traditional Sunday night slot with 1.8 million viewers.
The show, in which Life on Mars star Philip Glenister goes in search of rare cars to be done up and sold at auction, had an 8% share of the audience from 8pm, up a third (32.4%) on Channel 4’s three-month slot average.
Glenister, a vocal car enthusiast who knows a thing or two about an Audi Quattro, has been touted as a possible replacement for former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson on the BBC2 show.
Later, the penultimate episode of BBC1’s Poldark had 5.4 million viewers (24.3%) from 9pm, ahead of ITV drama rival Vera, which had 4.8 million viewers (21.5%) from 8pm.
Hot or not?
Channel 4’s £14m drama epic Indian Summers came to the end of its first run with a 90-minute finale watched by 1.1 million viewers, a 5.5% share, from 9pm.
The 10-part series, which has already been commissioned for a second series began with 2.9 million viewers (13.4%) in February.
