Kylie Has Viewers Flocking to The Voice

She was brought in on a bargain salary – in TV terms, that is – to provide the wow factor and ramp up viewing figures.

And in return for a rumoured £500,000 pay packet, Kylie Minogue certainly ticked one of the boxes by adding an extra four million to the ratings for The Voice.

But opinion was divided on whether she was a hit or a miss on the judging panel of the BBC1 talent show, which returned for its third series on Saturday.

The 45-year-old singer, who is earning a fraction of what she would receive with ITV rival The X Factor, helped attract a record high of 10.6million viewers, making The Voice the most watched show of the evening.

However, while some viewers thought her antics – flirting with contestants and high-fiving her fellow judges – were fun, others described them as cringeworthy.

Yesterday industry experts said her relatively low salary was the price to be paid for her mainstream comeback after her last three chart debuts stalled at 93, 31, and 96 in Britain.

The singer, who recently signed with edgy music label Roc Nation, home to Beyonce and Rihanna, is believed to be using the reality series to re-establish herself ahead of the release of her album Into The Blue in March.

She was rumoured to have requested up to £2million but BBC bosses refused and she is said to have settled for the same as the other judges, the returning Sir Tom Jones and Will.i.am, and fellow newcomer Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs.

James Harvey of PR company the Outside Organisation said: ‘Her recent songs haven’t been hits. Now she has signed with Roc Nation, which is much edgier and cooler, so it would seem this is the next chapter in her musical career.