Overnights: The Apprentice final steals the show

The final episode of this year’s eventful Apprentice series pulled in over 10.4 million peak viewers last night.

More than 9.8 million average viewers tuned in to see the two finalists, Kate and Yasmina, battle it out to become Sir Alan Sugar’s apprentice between 8pm and 9pm, securing BBC One with an impressive 38% average audience share during the peak-hour.

Kate and Yasmina had three days to create a box of chocolates and launch to an audience of more than 100 industry experts, with the help of their fellow contestants.

The aftershow, The Apprentice: You’re Hired!, hosted by Adrian Chiles with special guests Ruby Wax and Jonathan Ross, also attracted a high of more than 8.5 million viewers and a 36% average share between 10pm and 11pm.

The Apprentice pushed BBC One’s ratings well ahead of its rival terrestrial channels on Sunday evening, though the return Kingdom, the drama series starring Stephen Fry, picked up 5 million peak viewers and a 19.1% share for ITV1 during the all important peak-slot.

On Saturday, BBC One stole the show with a peak run of Casualty, Michael McIntyre’s new Comedy Roadshow and Signs, the sci-fi fantasy film starring Mel Gibson.

On Friday, the soaps dominated the evening’s ratings with BBC One’s Eastenders pulling in more than 8.2 million peak viewers and ITV1’s Coronation Street reaching a high of 8 million.

BBC One went on to secure the highest ratings from the 9pm watershed onwards, with a peak run of Have I Got News For You with Gavin & Stacey star Ruth Jones playing host as well as the much-loved Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

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.