Major Saturday night TV schedule shake-up as Britain's Got Talent set to go up against Gladiators this weekend

Hit BBC family show Gladiators has been shifted from its usual time slot upcoming Saturday. The episode will air at 7pm rather than 5.50pm on Saturday, March 8.

This is because the BBC will be hosting live coverage of the Six Nations match between Scotland and Wales. Coverage of the match, which is being held at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium, begins at 4pm.

Not only is Gladiators being shifted to accommodate the sports coverage but the new timeslot means that the BBC series will be going directly up against ITV rival Britain’s Got Talent. The TV talent competition returned to screens two weeks ago for its 18th series.

The two shows are set to go head-to-head in a rating showdown, with viewers normally given the option of tuning into both shows in the normal schedule.

Gladiators has been a rating smash for the BBC since the first season of the revival series hit screens last year. The show broke the record as the broadcaster’s most successful family entertainment launch in seven years and the second season has pulled in just under five million viewers per episode so far.

Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden, Bruno Tonioli have been joined by new guest judge KSI on the new series of Britain’s Got Talent. Viewing figure for the show, which once hit a peak of an average of 13.36 million viewers in 2009, have been steadily declining over the years.

However, millions of viewers are still tuning into the show with an average of five million watching the premiere episode of series 18.