Ratings: 'Britain's Got Talent' soars past 10 million

[dutchman]

Britain's Got Talent climbed to 10.4m viewers on Saturday night, quelling fears that the reality show is losing popularity.



Up over 1m week-on-week, the latest auditions episode - which featured a Michael McIntyre made of marmite - pulled in 9.95m (42.2%) at 8pm and 458k on ITV1 +1.

Immediately following the main show, Britain's Got More Talent with Stephen Mulhern entertained 1.14m (5%).

Doctor Who's 'Curse of the Black Spot', guest-starring Hugh Bonneville, grabbed 6.21m (30.9%) for BBC One at the slightly later time of 6.15pm, a rise of 800k on last week's 'Day of the Moon'.

Before Who, wacky gameshow Don't Scare The Hare logged 2.27m (14.4%), while ITV1's People Do The Funniest Things amused 2.7m (14.2%) and 129k on +1.

Keith Lemon vehicle Sing If You Can rumbled on with 3.99m (19.8%) for ITV, beating So You Think You Can Dance, which had 3.47m (17%) in the head-to-head 7pm clash.

At 9pm, the results fetched a further 3.28m (14.2%) for BBC One, after which Casualty drew 4.58m (20.2%) at 9.30pm for an episode titled 'Deception'.

Meanwhile, David Hasselhoff's appearance on Piers Morgan's Life Stories interested 3.68m (16%), adding 198k on ITV1 +1.

Over on BBC Two, a Dad's Army classic appealed to 2.44m (11.8%) at 7.30pm, then Versailles: The Dream of a King mustered 1.44m (6.1%), and 2.07m (9%) watched Have I Got A Bit More News For You at 9pm.

In a decent night for Channel 5, NCIS (8.30pm), CSI: Miami (9.15pm) and CSI: NY (10.15pm) nabbed respective audiences of 1.02m (4.3%), 1.27m (5.5%) and 1.89m (10.3%).

Channel 4's Million Pound Drop continued with 1.94m (8.6%) and 270k on timeshift at 10pm, while River Cottage took 1.11m (5.5%) at 8pm (+1: 161k).

Overall, ITV1 comfortably beat BBC One in primetime with 23% (+1: 1%) to 18.4%. BBC Two claimed third with 7.5%, followed by Channel 5 with 6%, and Channel 4 with 5.7% (+1: 0.8%).

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional