The new singing competition, which is pre-recorded, was scheduled to finish at 8.30pm when BGT starts but the late finish meant fans of both programmes didn't switch over until the ITV show was a few minutes in.

The number of viewers tuning in to the talent show started off at 5.7 million but climbed to 9.9 million - rising by 4.2 million once the BBC show had ended, the Mirror reports.

Senior ITV manager Mike Large tweeted: "Was The Voice ...