ITV takes ratings crown with Britain's Got Talent

by Staff, Brand Republic 02-Jun-08, 08:55

LONDON - 'Britain's Got Talent' proved to be a ratings winner again for ITV as the talent show's final pulled in a peak audience of 14.4m, giving it the biggest entertainment show audience of the year.

Viewers tuned in to watch 14-year-old dancer George Sampson, from Warrington, win the show. He performed to 'Singing in the Rain', while runner-up group Signature danced to 'Billie Jean'.

Sampson, who made it through to the semi-finals last year, won the £100,000 prize and a date with the Royal Variety Performance.

He put his win down to a key last minute change of musical routine. He had been planning to perform to a Bee Gees track before switching to the Gene Kelly classic, which was used in an ad by Volkswagen for the Volkswagen Golf GTI in 2005.

Sampson said: "I wasn't sure about the choice of song and, about an hour beforehand, we changed it.

"I probably wouldn't have won if I'd done the Bee Gees."

'Britain's Got Talent' trounced BBC One's rival talent show competition 'I'll Do Anything', which pulled in a peak audience of 7.3m. On the BBC, actress Jodie Prenger won the role of Nancy in the West End musical production of 'Oliver!'.

The ratings success brought 'Britain's Got Talent' in just short of the its Champion's League final -- Manchester United's win over Chelsea scored a peak audience of 14.6m viewers, giving ITV1 the most watched television moment of the year.

However, ITV will be feeling very pleased with its renewed ability to pull in such a large primetime audience on a Saturday night.

Comments

- 02/06/2008

Britain might have talent but not any sense...what happened on Saturday night? no offence George, your performance was great but choir boy Andrew Johnston should have won - his performance was beautiful, memorizing...I can feel a facebook 'Andrew Johnston for BGT' campaign coming on.

Mark Ram - 02/06/2008

it was very tight, there was also escala and faryl up there as well. great tv and well done to George. Personally I wanted Signature to win it

Jane Brown - 03/06/2008

I was torn between Signature and George... They were more entertaining for me than the singers, who picked comparitively boring performance pieces with no real opportunity for stunning vocals - unlike Paul Potts last year. Signature and George had stunning visuals that really made you sit up and take note. Escala would have been my 3rd choice, they seemed quite classy.