Almost 12 million viewers were left mesmerised by Britain’s Got Talent, making it the most watched show of the year so far.

The third episode of the series, which went out on April 25 and saw show supremo Simon Cowell come face to face with a hypnotic hound, had a consolidated audience of 11.9 million.

That puts it ahead of the EastEnders Live episode from earlier this year which previously topped the ratings with 11.6 million.

Britain's Got Talent
Ant and Dec present Britain’s Got Talent, which is judged by David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell (THAMES/SYCO TV)

The new series, which teams up Simon with David Walliams, Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden in the talent search, has an average consolidated audience of 11.5 million.

The top episode saw Simon, who is regularly photographed with his dogs Squiddly and Diddly, get on stage after Krystyna Lennon and her dog Princess had performed their act on members of the audience and presenting duo Ant and Dec.

He initially appeared to have resisted the dog’s attempts at hypnotism but was then seen slumped at his desk and said he did not fake being hypnotised by the dog.

Britain's Got Talent Princess the dog
Hypnotic dog Princess (THAMES/SYCO TV)

He said: “No! 100% real. I was feeling sleepy and then fell asleep.

“It’s almost like your brain tells you to do something which you shouldn’t be doing but you just go along with it. The next thing is, you’ve actually fallen asleep.

“I always said I wanted to find a cat that could play the guitar. I think we’ve done pretty well finding a dog that can hypnotise people! I just want to own the dog. I could literally rule the world with this dog because all it does is stare at you and you do whatever it wants.”