Apprentice falls to series low as Beurk exits I’m a Celeb
Wednesday night saw the hits keep coming for Lord Sugar’s band of merry marketers as the tenth series of The Apprentice (9pm) continued to slog it out with ITV’s runaway jungle hit.
Pushed back to the end of the year to avoid clashing with FIFA World Cup 2014, the occurrence – which is rarer than dignified exit from the board room – saw BBC One and ITV’s highly successful reality shows finally face off against one another.
Kicking off nine weeks ago with 20 candidates and 6.7 million viewers, Lord Sugar has witnessed both quantities eroding at an alarming rate.
Last night’s carry on saw the remaining eight contestants scramble about London, sporting a panicked glare, as they were tasked with picking up a number of items featured in previous series at the cheapest price possible.
The first clash with ITV’s celebrity antics three weeks ago saw The Apprentice fall to 6 million viewers, with last night’s battle seeing Lord Sugar’s ship of frantic bartering sink even further.
The third week of cross-channel reality rivalry saw the programme fall to 4.8 million viewers, the series lowest audience yet. An audience share of 20% tuned in to see teams Summit and Tenacity muster up all their slimy bargaining powers, losing out to ITV in the process.
Kinking off at 8:30pm with a vital half an hour head start was the sixteenth episode of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! which saw yet another famous face exit the jungle to face a barrage of post-eviction interviews.
A total audience of 7.3 million viewers watched the 1.5 hour show as broadcasting veteran Michael Buerk was finally released from media purgatory, securing a share of 31%.
On Channel 4, it was time for the last helping of an exclusive retail brand’s free and dubious promotional campaign masquerading as one of them kooky workplace documentaries as Liberty of London (9pm) finally closed its doors (figuratively speaking).
The fourth and final episode of the second series of the large-scale advert saw the mostly unlikable staff attempt to passively out sass each other as they transformed the high-end shop into a tatty winter wonderland. In September.
Opening with a little over 1 million viewer in early November, the grand reveal of the Christmas windows (with some added convoluted drama for good measure) netted just a 3% share. In total, 822,000 viewers tuned in to see grown men squeal at a shabby handbag collection.
Over on BBC Two, bored pensioner Michael Portillo’s grand gap year continued on the third series of Great Continental Railway Journeys (9pm). The former politician’s journey through Israel took in 1.9 million viewers and an 8% share.
At the same time, Channel 5 continued to reprocess one of Channel 4’s worst ideas as the second series of Benefits Britain: Life on the Dole continued at 9pm. Moving the glum fun to sunny Blackpool for one week only, last night’s taste of state-supported anxiety saw the audience fall from last week’s 1.3 million to just 921,000 viewers.
This is an ever bigger slump when compared to the very first episode in June of this year which netted a little over 2 million viewers. Yesterday’s visit to lovely Lancashire brought in a 4% share for Channel 5.
At 8pm Waterloo Road secured over 2 million viewers for BBC One, while MasterChef: The Professionals trundled on with 2.7 million resulting in BBC Two’s biggest hit of the day.
Earlier at 7pm on ITV, Emmerdale saw Andy Sugden continue to clash with his brother Robert, attracting just over 6 million viewers and a 32% share.
There was plenty more drama in an hour-long Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) straight afterwards with the main focus on an epic cat fight between Carla Connor and Tracy Barlow, just because it was Wednesday.
The latest dose of flared tempers and cross words saw the top dogs of the cobbles get into a physical alteration in the knicker factory, resulting in the day’s second biggest audience with 7.3 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.
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