Britain's Got Talent boosts audience to 11.9m

ITV1 had a better Saturday night than it did last week, when the first in the new series of the talent show drew 10.3m viewers and earned a 45% share.

Now that share is up to 50.4% and in addition 'Hell's Kitchen', following 'BGT' at 8.55pm-9.55pm, gave BBC One stalwart 'Casualty' a run for its money.

The celebrity cookery show managed 5.1m and a 22.4% share while 'Casualty' brought in 5.4m and a 23.2% share at 8.45pm-9.35pm.

ITV1's dinosaur fantasy adventure show 'Primeval' also bounced back from a disappointing performance last week when it clashed with BBC One's 'Doctor Who' Easter special, registering just 2.7m viewers and a 14.3% share at 6.15pm-7.15pm.

This week it managed 4.5m and 23% of the audience in direct competition with BBC One's new offering 'Tonight's The Night', described by reviewers as a cross between 'Britain's Got Talent' and 'Jim'll Fix It'.

'Tonight's The Night' brought in 4.6m viewers and a 23.7% share, and will run to a total of six parts.

On Sunday at 9pm-10pm 'Hell's Kitchen' rolled over its strong Saturday performance with 5m tuning in to see Shameless actor Jody Latham become the first celebrity to be evicted, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The exit of Latham, who was sacked by Marco Pierre White after arguing with fellow contestants Anthea Turner, who he called "a silly cow", and her husband Grant Bovey, drew a 20.3% share of the 9pm-10pm audience.

BBC One's 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' came in second in the ratings battle with 3.9m viewers and a 15.9% share of the audience.

The final episode in the current series focused on Precious Ramotswe's love life rather than her detective skills and left the way open for a second series.

'The Secret Millionaire', which this week saw millionaire property developer Rob Lloyd going undercover in Belfast, netted 2.7m viewers and an 11.1% share of the audience for Channel 4. Including Channel 4+1 figures it reached 3m viewers.

Louis Theroux's documentary 'A Place for Paedophiles', focusing on a convicted sex offender who has served his sentence and is struggling to be housed, scored 2.4m viewers and a 10% share of the audience for BBC Two.

Five's showing of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker blockbuster 'Rush Hour' won 1.7m viewers and an 8.1% share of the audience.

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com