Great British Bake Off cooks up top five most-watched shows of 2016

The Great British Bake Off has made a clean sweep of the top five most-watched programmes of the year so far.

An average of almost 13-and-a-half million people have tuned in to each episode of the hit BBC One cookery competition, new figures reveal.

It is the largest number of viewers the show has ever attracted in its seven-year history.

Should Bake Off continue to pull in such an audience, it is likely all 10 episodes of this year's series will end up in the top 10 most-watched programmes of 2016.

The ratings, which have been published by the research body Barb, include people who recorded the show then watched it up to seven days after transmission.

They cover only the first five episodes, and do not include the sixth instalment which aired on September 28.

The one programme that has come close to equalling Bake Off's ratings this year is Britain's Got Talent, an episode of which had almost 12.5 million viewers in April.

Last year's Bake Off final was watched by 15.1 million people - a figure that could well be exceeded this year.

Such a feat would set the bar extremely high for Bake Off's next series, which is due to air on Channel 4 after the BBC refused to pay a reported £25 million a year to keep the broadcasting rights.

Here are the 10 most-watched programmes of 2016 so far:

1. The Great British Bake Off (BBC One), August 24: 13.58 million

2. The Great British Bake Off (BBC One), August 31: 13.45 million

3. The Great British Bake Off (BBC One), September 14: 13.29 million

4. The Great British Bake Off (BBC One), September 21: 13.12 million

5. The Great British Bake Off (BBC One), September 7: 13.08 million

6. Britain's Got Talent (ITV), April 16: 12.46 million

7. Britain's Got Talent (ITV), April 23: 12.32 million

8. Euro 2016: Portugal v France (BBC One), July 10: 12.27 million

9. Euro 2016: Wales v Belgium analysis (BBC One), July 1: 11.89 million

10. Britain's Got Talent (ITV) April 30: 11.87 million