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Both are vying to be the UK's top talent show and also to take the mantle of the most popular programme in the country at the moment.

According to unofficial overnight figures, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, which is sponsored by Virgin Media, had an average audience of 9.42 million on Saturday night.

It recorded a 38.9% share between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on Saturday night, while an additional 478,000 watched the show on ITV1+1.

The ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ peak audience of 10.67 million was achieved towards the end of the show at 9.25pm across ITV1 and ITV1 HD. When ITV1+1 is included the peak was 11.3 million.

The figures mean ITV’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ has turned the tables on the BBC’s ‘The Voice’, which last week beat ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ in both its average and peak audience for the first time.

On Saturday night ‘The Voice’ had an average audience of 9.33 million viewers between 7pm and 8.30pm on BBC One and BBC One HD, a 41.8% share. The show peaked at 10.30 million viewers at 8.20pm.

TV impresario Simon Cowell returned to ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ to judge the auditions this year but the show has come across tough competition from ‘The Voice’ and its panel of  judges, which includes Will.i.am and Jessie J.

The second helping of ‘The Voice’ on Sunday night had an average audience of 8.62 million viewers, a 35.1% share, between 7.30pm and 8pm on BBC One and BBC One HD.

Meanwhile, ‘Vera’, the crime drama starring Brenda Blethyn, had an average audience of 5.05 million viewers between 8pm and 10pm on ITV1 and ITV1 HD, a 19.8% share. An additional 260,100 watched the show on ITV1+1.

Although 'Vera' was the most watched TV show for its first 15 minutes, it was then over taken by BBC One’s long running valuation programme ‘Antiques Roadshow’ for the rest of the 8pm hour.

Between 8pm and 9pm ‘Antiques Roadshow’ had an average audience of 5.5 million viewers, 21.6% share, on BBC One and BBC One HD.

‘Homeland’, the high-profile US drama starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, had an average audience of 2.02 million between 9pm and 10pm on Channel 4 and Channel 4 HD. An additional 323,200 watched the show on Channel 4 +1.

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