Cowell to change BGT time slot
Simon Cowell is moving 'Britain's Got Talent's time slot to avoid a clash with 'The Voice'.
The music mogul has admitted defeat in the ratings battle between the two talent shows after the new BBC One series attracted more viewers than his ITV1 programme for three weeks in a row.
'Britain's Got Talent', which features judges Simon, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams, will now be aired on Saturdays at 8:30pm from April 21 instead of its current 8pm start, which had led to a 20-minute crossover with 'The Voice'.
Last Saturday, BGT attracted 6.2 million viewers during the schedule overlap, but 'The Voice', which runs from 7pm to 8:20pm, pulled in figures of 10 million.
Despite losing out to 'The Voice', which stars judges Tom Jones, Jessie J, will.i.am and Danny O'Donoghue – during the crossover, 'BGT' has peaked at 11.9 million viewers compared to its rival's 10.7 million.
An ITV spokesman said: “At its peak, 11.9 million people watched 'Britain's Got Talent' this weekend; the highest recorded audience figure on any channel, so far this month.
"Viewing figures for 'BGT' are up year-on-year. By moving to 8.30pm we are ensuring that as many people as possible have the opportunity to watch the show in full."
But a BBC insider insisted: “The BBC always wanted to avoid any overlap but rather than killing 'The Voice' as ITV had hoped, it was instead damaging 'BGT'. It’s no surprise they moved it, given last week’s ratings.”
Following 'The Voice's latest ratings victory, Cowell took to his twitter account and issued a "slightly irritated congrats" to the show.
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