Media

BGT ahead of The Voice in launch night ratings

By | Published on Monday 26 March 2012

Britain's Got Talent

Simon Cowell’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ won in the ratings war against the BBC’s new expensively bought in talent show flim flam ‘The Voice’ on Saturday night, assuming you trust the TV ratings, which are only slightly more reliable than the radio industry’s RAJAR figures.

But according to the official stats, the first edition of ‘BGT’ for 2012, which sees Cowell himself return as a judge, was seen by 9.3 million viewers during its eighty minute time slot, while ‘The Voice’ pulled in 8.4 million viewers.

Though when the two shows went directly head to head for twenty minutes, ‘The Voice’ had more viewers than ‘BGT’, presumably because the BBC show aired first and was reaching its peak while the ITV programme was going through the customary introductory palaver.

As previously reported, when the schedules for this weekend’s TV output were being put together it looked like ‘The Voice’ and ‘BGT’ could overlap by up to 45 minutes, but in the end the Beeb went a bit earlier than planned and ITV a bit later, thus reducing the actual crossover.

Both sides will probably be pleased with the first night performance of their Springtime talent contests, though whether that will stop the sniping between reps of the two rival programmes remains to be seen.

Cowell has thrown a few shots over at ‘The Voice’ camp in recent weeks, in the main questioning whether it’s right for the BBC to spend over £20 million buying in an existing international TV format to take on his shows over on ITV.

Meanwhile, ‘The Voice’ judge Will.i.am, who previously appeared on the ‘X-Factor’ and now manages one time ‘X’ queen Cheryl Cole, this weekend dissed Cowell’s record for supporting the acts that come through his telly talent show ventures, in particular criticising Team Syco for their work on the career of 2010 ‘X’ finalist Cher Lloyd, who the Black Eyed Pea reckons should have had much more success since exiting the ITV show and signing to Cowell’s label.

Perhaps she’d have got more out of the experience if she’d entered the competition with management in place, who could have coordinated things before, during and after her appearance on the ITV show.

Of course that’s not previously been allowed under ‘X-Factor’ rules, partly to ensure an amateurs-only ethos, partly because acts with professional representation might be at an advantage when it comes hype building ahead of big viewer votes, and partly because the ‘X’ show’s business partners want first dibs on any management contracts worth having amongst the contest’s finalists.

But producers have revealed that from this year acts with managers already in place will be able to compete, which in theory could mean more established artists whose careers have waned, or which never really took off in the way they hoped, could appear. Which would certainly add to the freak show style curiosity shop element of the programme, especially during the earlier heats.



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