The Voice reels in Britain's Got Talent

According to unofficial overnight figures, ‘The Voice’ and its celebrity judges Tom Jones, Will.i.am, Danny O'Donoghue and Jessie J, had an average audience of 9.54 million viewers, a 41.1% share, between 7pm and 8.20pm.

It began its run on 26 March with an average audience of 8.43 million viewers on BBC One and BBC One HD, a 37.6% share of the available audience.

‘Britain’s Got Talent’ had an average audience of 9.10 million viewers, a 37.3% share of the available audience, on ITV1 and ITV1 HD between 8pm and 9.15pm. An additional 517,000 watched the show on ITV1 +1.

At 9.10 million, the average audience marked a decline from its 9.90 million viewers the previous week (31 March) and the launch show's 9.31 million (on 24 March).

However, the combined average of 9.6 million, across ITV1, ITV1 HD and ITV1 +1, was up on last year’s third episode, which was watched by 9.45m viewers (including +1 viewing) on 30 April.

Between 8pm and 8.15pm, when ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and ‘The Voice’ went head to head, the BBC One show had an audience of 10 million viewers, three million ahead of ITV1’s 6.89 million viewers.

The peak audience during ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ was 11.3 million on ITV1 and ITV1 HD, ahead of 10.7 million for ‘The Voice’ (across HD and SD) but down from a peak of 12 million the previous week and 11.5 million the week before.

TV mogul and pop impresario Simon Cowell returned to ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ for the entire series this year, after his absence in the early part of last year’s run was blamed for a decline in audience.

‘Britain’s Got Talent’ is sponsored by pay-TV and telecoms operator Virgin Media, and Cowell and returning judge Amanda Holden are joined by David Walliams and Alesha Dixon on the panel.

‘Titanic’, the Julian Fellows follow-up to ‘Downton Abbey’, sank to an average of 3.16 million viewers between 9pm and 10pm on ITV1 and ITV1 HD, a 12.8% share. An additional average of 364,400 viewers watched ‘Titanic’ on ITV1 +1.

The first episode of ‘Titanic’ three weeks ago had an average audience of 6.89 million viewers on ITV1 and ITV1 HD, but the show dropped to 4.39 million viewers last week (1 April).

‘Silent Witness’, the long-running mystery drama, had an average audience of 5.9 million viewers across BBC One and BBC One HD between 9pm and 10pm, a 23.8% share of the audience.

Follow Maisie McCabe on Twitter @MaisieMcCabe