Saturday 31st May 2008
The Britain’s Got Talent juggernaut reached the end of this year’s journey on ITV1, with the live final at 6.50pm, followed by the results show at 9.30pm. The Talkback/Syco produced talent show saw a host of wide-ranging acts narrowed down through the course of the previous five days through a series of live semi-finals, to produce 10 contenders for the winner’s spot on the night. The live final attracted an average of 11m, but peaked at 13m between 8pm and 8.15pm. However, the results show, which started transmission at 9.30pm, actually averaged 13.1m and peaked at 13.7m. Both shows had shares of over 50%, making this a big peaktime win for ITV1, even winning the slot against BBC1’s Doctor Who at 7pm.

Wednesday 28th May 2008
The England football team was in action for a friendly match against the USA on BBC1 last night, but after their failure to reach the Euro 2008 finals it seems many viewers decided the real talent was on ITV1 rather than on the football pitch. BBC1’s live coverage averaged 7m (27.7%) between 8-10pm as England ran out 2-0 winners with a lackadaisical display, giving the channel a below-par TI™ score of 84. The match couldn’t slow the Britain’s Got Talent juggernaut over on ITV1 as the latest episode picked up 9.3m (35.9%) between 8:30 – 10pm to give a TI™ score of 163.

Tuesday 27th May 2008
Two heavyweights went head-to-head on Tuesday evening as BBC1’s The Apprentice clashed with ITV1’s Britain’s Got Talent. Sir Alan was moved out of his usual Wednesday evening slot to make room for BBC1’s live football coverage of England vs USA, but with Britain’s Got Talent stripped nightly this week, a clash was always on the cards. This is the second week in a row that The Apprentice has suffered in the schedules – last week’s episode clung on to 5m as it went up against ITV1’s live coverage of the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea. Last night’s show improved on this with an audience of 6.5m (25.7%) and a TI™ score of 136 between 9-10pm despite the clash with Britain’s Got Talent. The latter won the slot and averaged 8.8m (35.3%) between 8:30 – 10pm (giving a TI™ Score of 160), but this was significantly down on its stellar Bank Holiday Monday performance when it attracted 10.9m (42%).



For a more detailed summary of the week’s television, please visit http://www.attentional.com/blog.php