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Simon Cowell has congratulated the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ after The Voice was watched by more viewers than Britain's Got Talent over the weekend.

The music and media mogul praised ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ1 controller Danny Cohen and The Voice via Twitter.

He wrote: "A slightly irritated congrats to Danny and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ."

An average of 9.5 million viewers watched The Voice, compared with 9.1 million for BGT, according to statistics from the two broadcasters.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's singing competition also had a bigger share of the audience - 41.1% - when it aired between 1900 BST and 2020 BST. ITV's talent show had a 37.3% share when it was broadcast between 2000 BST and 2115 BST.

Mr Cowell also made a light-hearted reference to Pudsey the dancing dog who appeared on Saturday night's Britain's Got Talent show, saying the The Voice "didn't have a dancing dog".

He added: "I thought our team made a fantastic show last night and congrats to them as well. Loving the show this year."

ITV said Saturday's broadcast of Britain's Got Talent was watched by a peak audience of 11.9 million - 11.3 million excluding ITV's +1 channel - representing a 47% share of viewing.

The Voice's peak was lower at 10.7 million. But the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ said it had won "by a massive margin" in the 20-minute crossover after 2000 BST when the two shows went head-to-head.

The Voice averaged 10 million during this period, against 6.2 million for Britain's Got Talent, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ said.