TV

The Voice wins ratings battle against The Greatest Dancer

The two went head to head

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Saturday night saw two entertainment show juggernauts go head to head on the BBC and ITV.

And as the battle of the ratings began, ITV’s The Voice beat BBC’s new show The Greatest Dancer.

The Greatest Dancer features Cheryl, Matthew Morrison and Oti Mabuse as judges, and Alesha Dixon and Jordan Banjo as the hosts, and it averaged 4.6 million viewers on BBC One.

The Greatest Dancer didn’t beat The Voice (Credit: BBC)

Read more: Cheryl’s new show needs more fights

The Voice UK – featuring coaches Olly Murs, Jennifer Hudson, Will.i.am and Sir Tom Jones back in their red chairs – had the edge with 4.8 million viewers on ITV (5.3 million viewers including ITV plus one).

The start of the new series of The Voice was the most-watched programme in the 8pm slot.

The Voice was most-watched (Credit: ITV)

The show peaked 6.1 million (30% share), including ITV plus one, while The Greatest Dancer peaked at 5.2 million (25.3%), overnight figures show.

The BBC said that The Greatest Dancer had more viewers than the BBC One shows, such as Wedding Day Winners and Casualty, that went up against The Voice last year.

It also revealed the show performed well with the 16 to 34-year-old age group.

cheryl greatest dancer
Cheryl’s show went down well with the younger audience (Credit: BBC)

Saturday’s launch episode of The Greatest Dancer, made by Simon Cowell’s production company Syco, saw a freestyle performer with Down’s Syndrome leave Cheryl in tears after his audition.

The former Girls Aloud star told him: “I just feel really moved by the whole thing.”

Meanwhile over on The Voice, Tom Jones had viewers all emotional when he performed a duet with former pal Lonnie Donegan’s son, Peter.

Lonnie Donegan’s son, Peter, moved Tom Jones in The Voice (Credit: ITV)

Read more: Tom Jones reveals he blames himself for the death of his wife

Peter auditioned and in a lovely twist Tom was the only one to turn his big red chair around for him.

The pair then went on to sing I’ll Never Fall In Love Again together, which was the song Lonnie wrote for Tom, and that he still performs to this day.

Tom has also opened up about the death of his wife Linda, telling The Daily Star that he feels he “could have done more” to make her go to the doctors. She passed away from lung cancer in 2016.

Which show did you watch? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think!

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