Gary Barlow's Let It Shine kicks off in battle against The Voice

Take That star Gary Barlow's search for the cast of a new musical has kicked off - immediately clashing with former BBC Saturday night staple The Voice.

Let It Shine is new to BBC One and goes up against The Voice, which has switched to rival broadcaster ITV.

The pair are scheduled to clash throughout their runs, airing for the first time on Saturday night.

As The Voice began on ITV during Barlow's show, some viewers admitted they would be turning over.

Viewer Harry Maxwell tweeted: "Switching over to The Voice... You could say Let It Shine set the Bar-low. #letitshine"

But another Twitter user, Jack Anderson, wrote: "Let it shine is so much better than the X factor or the voice."

Former Take That star Robbie Williams tweeted his support for his one-time bandmate, writing: "I know what I'm watching this eve .BBC 7 o'clock .Let it shine .GOOOARRNNN Lads xxxx"

For the first round of auditions, Barlow, and fellow panellists Dannii Minogue and Martin Kemp were joined by former Glee actress Amber Riley, who is now starring in the West End stage show of Dreamgirls, as a guest judge.

Each judge could award up to five points and two of the hopefuls - Nicky Price, 17 and Jason Brock, 30 - earned a full 20 points on their way through to the next round.

The programme featured two other members of Take That, Mark Owen and Howard Donald, who chatted to the auditionees backstage.

Owen said to one nervous contestant who had never held a microphone: "We had one mic, Gary had the one that worked, and we had plastic ones.

"We used to pass it round for certain songs, we built it into our dance routines."

:: Let It Shine will be broadcast every Saturday at 7pm on BBC1.