People Be Watchin' 'Britain's Got Talent'

Awesome news for Simon Cowell! Not only is he a new dad, but the latest season of one of his many shows is doing very well right out of the gate. Very, very well. As a matter of fact, the original version of the record-setting franchise that is Got Talent has broken another record. Its own record. Saturday night, the eighth season of Britain's Got Talent kicked things off with an all-time high premiere audience. Over 11 million people tuned in to see what judges Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, David Walliams (as well as the newest crop of hopeful performers, o' course) had in store for 'em.

The show's previous premiere record was set back in 2010 with 10.6 million viewers. BGT just about closed in on that number in 2013 when 10.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the first ep of the season. Looks like 2014 is its year! So how'd the show garner nearly one million more viewers? How'd BGT score, according to The Guardian, 47.3% of the UK's TV-watching audience? Well, as Variety points out, Saturday night was the first time in two years the show wasn't up against The Voice. Aha! Didn't have to worry about the ol' competition, eh? I'm not a statistician or a strategist, but that miiiight have something to do with it.