Britain’s Got Talent was the most watched show on Saturday night, as the judges whittled down the performers for the live semi-finals.

But while the 8.4 million viewers who saw the episode matched the ratings for the equivalent last year, the figure was down on last week’s total of 9.1 million.

Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell (Joe Giddens/PA)

Saturday night’s episode of the ITV talent search attracted a 42% share of viewers.

The live semi-finals start on Monday and run all week.

Doctor Who, on BBC One, had four million viewers.