Simon Cowell indulged in a bit of uncharacteristic praise yesterday (April 8) as he congratulated rival TV show The Voice on their ratings.

The BBC reports that The Voice had an average audience of 9.5m on Saturday (April 7) - whilst Cowell's Britain's Got Talent received an average of 9.1m.

Cowell took time to praise BBC controller Danny Cohen on the results, tweeting:

"A slightly irritated congrats to Danny and the BBC. But you didn't have a dancing dog!

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

Cowell had previously engaged in something of a war of words with the BBC and The Voice - which had launched on the same night as this year's Britain's Got Talent - proclaiming that they were creating a "silly rivalry" out of the two shows and also his crown jewel, X Factor.