The Voice ratings revive for semi-final (as it no longer competes with Britain's Got Talent)

The Voice finalists, Andrea Begley, Mike Ward, Holly Willoughby, Reggie Yates, Matt Henry, Leah McFall (BBC)

Talent show The Voice saw a ratings revival for its semi-final as it piled on more than a million and a half extra viewers last night.

The BBC One show drew an average audience of 5.8 million who saw Matt Henry, Andrew Begley, Leah McFall and Mike Ward chosen to go through to the final next weekend.

It was a huge improvement on the 4.2 million who watched the previous week's quarter-final stage - the first live programme of the 2013 series.

And it was a huge improvement on the 4.5 million who tuned in for the semis last year.

In general this year's programme has lagged behind the ratings for the 2012 run, but last night's show bucked the trend.

At the programme's peak, it had an audience of 6.7 million and the BBC said it was the most watched programme of the night.

PA