Sherlock eclipsed by Britain's Got Talent in TV ratings

Britain's Got Talent has leapfrogged Sherlock to become the most-watched TV programme of the year so far.

Revised ratings for the second episode of Britain's Got Talent, broadcast on April 16, reveal the ITV show attracted a combined audience of 12.46 million people.

This is almost one million more than the 11.64 million who tuned in for the episode of Sherlock on BBC One on New Year's Day.

Sherlock is now the second most-watched show of 2016, narrowly ahead of the launch episode of Britain's Got Talent, which is in third place with 11.59 million.

BBC1's drama series Call The Midwife occupies all the remaining positions in the top 10.

ITV bosses will be hoping that future editions of Britain's Got Talent are popular enough to knock some of the Midwife episodes out of the chart.

In 2015 Britain's Got Talent's biggest audience was 12.75 million viewers, meaning this year's series is already close to matching last year's success.

:: (All ratings for ITV include the ITVHD and ITV+1 channels.)