Business-as-usual as professional hawking show nets 6.4m on BBC One
Wednesday night brought the eleventh series of cringe-powered reality show The Apprentice (BBC One, 9pm) to the nation’s screens, as another hoard of buzz-word spouting ‘professionals’ entered Lord Sugar’s arena of desperate ware flogging in a disreputable bid for financial glory, or at the very least a place in the next bout of Celebrity Big Brother.
With many long-in-the-tooth reality shows currently under scrutiny, it’s refreshing to see the creaking format offer up no twists or surprises, with the first episode of the current run identical to previous outings apart from one minute change.
Like Margaret Mountford before him, Nick Hewer has been replaced by a younger, hotter model in the form of Claude Littner (the scary bloke from the interview round), adding some much needed impatience to proceedings.
While other shows have wavered in popularity the longer they stick around, the last few years of The Apprentice have brought a consistent audience to BBC One – in 2012 the eighth series opened up with 6.4 million viewers and 2013 saw the premier drop slightly to 6 million.
The last series opened with 6.7 million viewers on the same date last year, with December’s finale falling to 6.2 million.
Last night saw the 18 new hopefuls, made up of the usual mix of digital marketing experts and aggressive and deluded small business owners, tasked with flogging some fish snacks around London.
As usual, it wasn’t about which team was best but which team failed in the least painful way (two words – decomposing calamari), with the latest dose of too-painful-to-watch panicked hawking securing a standard 6.4 million viewers for BBC One.
[advert position=”left”]Not only did the 29% share help the show net the 9pm slot but the embarrassing ‘power’ antics topped the TV Twitter chart. So business as usual, then.
Surprisingly, though, the contrived reality show wasn’t BBC One’s most popular show of the day. That fell to a special episode of feel-good teatime exercise that was DIY SOS: Homes for Veterans (8pm) which saw Prince Harry and Price William show up to help build an entire community in a couple of weeks.
Despite being presented by Nick Knowles, the hour of cathartic do-goodery secured a little over 7 million viewers and a 33% share, taking the day’s top spot.
Over on ITV, Phillip Schofield struggled to keep away from our screens, with the latest All Star Mr and Mrs securing 2.8 million viewers and a 13% share at 8pm.
At 9pm there was another one of those let’s-watch-a-TV-personality-on-holiday shows in the form of Alexander Armstrong in the Land of the Midnight Sun, which was watched by 2.7 million viewers and a 12% share.
Earlier, it was ITV’s soaps that took the day’s top spots with the latest visit to the cursed village of Emmerdale (7pm) bringing in 5.7 million viewers and a 31% share, while the equally unlucky residents of Coronation Street (7:30pm) helped secure 6.7 million viewers and a 34% 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.
To get all the latest Mediatel Newsline updates follow us on Twitter.