13.5m see Britain's Got Talent

ITV1's hugely popular variety show Britain's Got Talent romped home in the ratings race on Sunday, getting a peak audience of 13.5m (51.7%) at 9pm.

The initial 60-minute final at 8pm gained a staggering audience of 11m, equivalent to a share of 43.7%.

According to media analysts Attentional, the show, which over-ran by around five minutes, got its peak audience at bang on 9pm over a five minute period. In the 15-minutes from 8.45pm the show averaged an impressive 12.1m (45.9%).

Later on in the evening (17 June) the results show, which saw opera singer Paul Potts named as the winner for his rendition of Nessun Dorma, averaged 10.6m (44.7%) with a peak of 11.2m (48.4%) in the final 15-minutes of the half hour show.

Both editions of the talent show were well above ITV1's averages for their respective time slots. 7.6m (31.1%) is the average for the 8pm slot while 5.4m (25.7%) is the usual figure for the 10pm.

The previous week's Britain's Got Talent attracted 6.4m (28.1%) in an 8.30pm slot.

Over the entire run of the show, which is a co-production between Talkback Thames and Syco, it has significantly built its audience from the rather modest beginning of 4.9m (22.7%). Overall it has gained an average audience of 8m (33.6%).

ITV on top

While Britain's Got Talent was on air it comprehensively dominated viewing with no other channel even coming remotely close to providing a serious challenge.

The second most popular channel at 8pm was BBC1 which aired The Chase. That show pulled in just 3.5m (13.8%) in an hour-long slot, a drop of 500,000 viewers compared to the previous week.

BBC2's Coast put in a valiant performance in light of the competition. It got 3.3m (12.9%) at the same time. Coast managed to build its audience form 2.8m (12.9%) to 3.6m (13.6%) in the final 15 minutes.

Channel 4 and Five both struggled to make an impact at the time. C4's Big Brother: on the Couch drew 1.2m (4.6%) while Five's movie, Envy, gained just 600,000 (2.3%).

ITV1 outstripped the competition at 10pm as well. Its nearest rival at the time was BBC1's 10 O'Clock News on 4m (16.5%).

Happy talk

Sandwiched between the two editions of Britain's Got Talent was the second part of ITV1's racy drama series Talk to Me.

Last night's episode at 9pm was given a significant shot in the arm thanks to the variety show. The 60-minute show, starring Max Beesley, took 5.5m (21.6%), an increase of 1.3m viewers on the opening show last Sunday (10 June).

It only just managed to gain the top spot at the time though as it had BBC1's How We Built Britain breathing down its neck on 5.3m (21.1%).

Grabbing third place was Big Brother on Channel 4 with 3.2m (12.5%). BBC2's 90-minute one-off drama starring Sarah Parish, Sex, the City and Me, took 2.4m (9.8%), building its audience to 2.7m (11.5%) in the final 15 minutes at 10.15pm.

Driving in my car

The continuing success of Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton ensured that ITV1 also dominated viewing from the late afternoon. The commercial network's three hour coverage of the USA Grand Prix from 5pm gained a solid average audience of 5.2m (31.3%) viewers. Hamilton's success, which saw him lead the race right from the start, managed to build from 2.1m (20.3%) to a significant 6.9m (33.5%) at 7.30pm.

BBC1's Songs of Praise at 6.15pm had 1.8m (10.8%) while The Great British Village Show took 3.5m (18.5%) from 6.50pm.

All hours shares for Sunday 17 June 2007: ITV1 – 22.6%, BBC1 – 16.4%, BBC2 – 8.8%,

C4 – 8.3%, Five – 4.2%, multichannel – 39.8%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 34.7%, BBC1 – 16.8%, C4 – 8.7%, BBC2 – 8.6%, Five – 2.9%, multichannel – 28.3%.

Source: Broadcast Now