The Apprentice becomes full-on farce, nets 6.2m for BBC One
Last night brought the latest instalment from Alan Sugar’s uncomfortable comedy show The Apprentice (9pm), with the fifth episode in the current run continuing to expose all the remaining contestants for the buzzword-spouting clueless oxygen thieves that they are.
Wednesday night saw Lord Sugar thrust his greedy fingers in yet another tentative pie as he tasked the eleven remaining contestants with creating and executing a coach tour for London tourists.
As usual things began to fall apart almost immediately for the gravely-named teams of Tenacity and Summit, as they battled to come up with an intriguing proposition and failed to sell tickets – with one team in particular deciding to serenade their irritated and stressed out customers with a never-ending rendition of The Wheels on the Bus.
Once again, The Apprentice delivered the cringe factor in spades, helping secure the biggest 9pm audience and becoming Wednesday’s second biggest hit.
Building on the attention received from last week’s shock triple dismissal, yesterday’s exercise in corporate BS saw a slight week on week rise, up from 5.9 million for last week’s boardroom bloodbath to 6.2 million for the coach trip from hell, resulting in a 27% share.
At the same time, BBC Two was offering viewers the chance to get away from it all with The Right Honourable Michael Portillo as he kicked off another grand train jaunt in the third series of Great Continental Railway Journeys (9pm).
The first section of Portillo’s latest licence fee-funded adventure saw the former Conservative Party superstar get to know his Russian friends as he travelled from Tula to Saint Petersburg, fighting off the attention of women and getting completely stark naked on the way.
2.2 million viewers tuned in to see him cosy up to his new pals in order to open up new networking opportunities, netting a 10% share along the way.
Meanwhile, there was a much different experience to be had over on ITV as the first half of nightmare-fuelkled documentary Broadmoor (9pm) aired.
Originally a Victorian asylum, the high security psychiatric hospital fully opened its doors to the film crew (figuratively speaking – the alternative would be terrifying), with an audience of 2.6 million viewers (an 11% share) choosing to spend their Wednesday night in its traumatising halls.
Over on Channel 4, Kevin McCloud wrapped up the fourteenth series of Grand Designs (9pm) with one of those satisfying revisited episodes, guaranteeing viewers will be rewarded with a finished build at least.
1.2 million viewers watched as Kevin returned to Devon to meet a man who lost three limbs in Afghanistan and to catch up with the build and his burgeoning family, netting a 5% share.
Channel 5 offered up a documentary of another kind as depressing observational cautionary show Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Away (9pm) took in 1.3 million and a 6% share.
At 8pm the final series of Waterloo Road (BBC One) limped along with 2.4 million viewers and a 12% share, while the second episode of MasterChef: The Professionals netted 2.5 million and a 12% share over on BBC Two.
Over on ITV, Holly Willoughby solved families’ issues by throwing brand sponsored prizes at them in the ever-emotional reboot of Surprise Surprise (8pm). The sentimental and manipulative hour of telly was watched by a 15% share, with 3.1 million viewers tuning in to find out the super-talented Mark Wright was involved, for some mad reason.
Over on Channel 4, crazed Dr Moreae-type figure Noel Fitzpatrick continued to tinker against God’s plans in the final episode of The Supervet at 8pm. 1.4 million viewers tuned in to see the Irish ‘Bionic Vet’ fit a Labrador with a new spine, netting a 7% share.
Earlier in the day there were some fireworks in Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm), but more of the child-endangering kind than romantic chemistry. The latest drama from Yorkshire’s most dangerous dale, secured 5.9 million and a 32% share.
But it was the midweek trip to Weatherfield that nudged The Apprentice out of the way, with Tracy Barlow making a decision to abandon her brattish daughter and run away with a fellow-murderer because life on Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) is clearly that bad.
An audience of 7.2 million viewers watched as unstoppable super-sleuth Ken Barlow eventually figured out what was happening right under his nose, resulting in a 37% share.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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