Gary Barlow's new BBC talent search triumphed over rival show The Voice in the first Saturday night ratings battle of 2017.
The latest Saturday night ratings battle has been won by the BBC’s new show Let It Shine, which pulled in 400,000 more viewers than The Voice UK, according to the Huffington Post.
The broadcasters’ schedules meant the two shows went head-to-head, and figures from overnights.tv show ‘Let It Shine’ triumphed, with an average of 6.3million viewers watching.
5.9 million tuned in to watch ITV's new look The Voice UK kick off.
In 2016, The Voice's series opener pulled in 7.1 million viewers, while in 2015 8 million tuned in.
Gary Barlow previously asked critics to ignore Let It Shine ratings, telling the BBC: “I think people are ingesting TV in a different way now. That old system of ratings shouldn’t really apply any more.”
The Let It Shine episode started with Gary performing an opening number in which he sang about searching for fame.
Co-presented by Graham Norton and Mel Giedroyc, Let It Shine will search for a band to take part in a stage show featuring the music of Take That.
For the first round of auditions, Gary, Dannii Minogue and Martin Kemp were joined by former Glee actress Amber Riley, who is now starring in the West End stage show of Dreamgirls, as a guest judge.
Each judge could award up to five points and two of the hopefuls – Nicky Price, 17 and Jason Brock, 30 – earned a full 20 points on their way through to the next round.
The Voice, which started out on the BBC but moved over to ITV this year, saw a string of hopefuls attempt to impress coaches Will.i.Am, Sir Tom Jones, Jennifer Hudson and Gavin Rossdale with their personal renditions of popular hits.
Contestants Jason Jones, Into the Ark, Diamond, Truly Scrumptious, Max Vickers and Mo Adeniran wowed the coaches in the first stage of blind auditions, and they were all given places in the competition.
The Voice continues next Saturday at 8pm on ITV1.
Let It Shine continues next Saturday at 7pm on BBC1.
