Latest display of ineptitude on The Apprentice nets BBC One 5.6m and tops Twitter
For the third week in a row BBC One’s The Apprentice (9pm) sauntered along and secured Wednesday night’s prime time slot with ease, as Lord Alan’s troupe of comedy performers were set the impossible task of selling pet products at a pet show.
Meeting his naive congregation at the house of poet Dr Samuel Johnson (he had a cat, cats are a type of pet – keep up!) the UK’s top business authority once again mixed up the two teams and sent them out to meet purveyors of animal tat, with each team choosing what to flog at inflated prices.
While this may have seemed like a simple enough enterprise, Alan’s carefully selected teams of mainly inept TV stars produced more cutting looks and arguments than winning sales techniques.
While the format may be exhausting the most loyal of fans, the 11th series opened up with strong audiences as it aired over two consecutive nights and also bagged last week’s 9pm slot.
An audience of 5.6 million viewers tuned in for a bit of a giggle as nice-but-hopelessly-dim Scott was put in charge of one team, resulting in a 26% share. In the boardroom, one particularly hateful candidate narrowly escaped the karma-powered axe, helping the show top yesterday’s TV Twitter chart.
Things were slightly less exciting elsewhere, with BBC Two bringing The Face of Britain by Simon Schama (9pm) to a close after five episodes of art history. Last night’s tense finale saw Simon taking a look at self-portraits and secured 594,000 viewers and a 3% share.
It was also time to say goodbye to ITV’s chilly travelogue Alexander Armstrong in the Land of the Midnight Sun (9pm) with the third and final episode seeing the comedian travel from Canada to Alaska.
An audience of 2.6 million viewers decided to spend their dull October evening looking at a man freeze slowly over his adventures, resulting in a 12% share.
[advert position=”left”]On Channel 4, Kevin McCloud revisited a very expensive floating house on the Thames in Grand Designs (9pm), which bagged 1.7 million viewers and an 8% share.
Rather ominously on Channel 5, people falling into the opposite economic demographic became the ‘stars’ of Can’t Pay? We’ll Take it Away (9pm). 1.2 million viewers and a 6% share watched the depressing cautionary tale dressed up as entertainment.
Earlier in the day, BBC Two offered up two whole hours of World Gymnastics Championships (7pm), with 1.4 million viewers tuning in to feel bad about watching all those super healthy people, resulting in a 7% share.
At 8pm on BBC One there was a new teatime cop show which played like a cross between The Bill and Line of Duty, with Cuffs struggling to shine in a pre-watershed time slot.
The first episode of the ambitiously straight-laced Brighton cop drama netted 4.2 million viewers and a 21% share, no doubt aiming for a long running Casualty-like career. Just don’t mention Holby Blue.
On ITV, All Star Mr & Mrs (8pm) brought in 2.9 million viewers and a 14% share while Channel 4’s Restoring Britain’s Landmarks was watched by 1.2 million viewers and a 6% share.
At the same time Channel 5 aired GPs: Behind Closed Doors (8pm) which was not as dodgy as it sounds but actually a series of antidotes that secured 982,000 viewers and a 5% share.
At 7pm, charming rural soap Emmerdale secured 6.1 million viewers on ITV, with the continuing tale of murderers having affairs securing a 32% share.
But it was Tyrone’s money trouble on Coronation Street (7:30pm) that took the top spot, with 6.7 million viewers and a 33% share tuning in for the latest Weatherfield drama.
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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