TV Overnights: BBC Ones’s new Apprentice loses out to ITV1’s Midsomer Murders & Five’s Football

ITV1’s long-running Midsomer Murders and Five’s Europa League Final coverage robbed BBC One’s all-new Junior Apprentice of the peak-hour top spot last night.

ITV1’s crime drama, which stars John Nettles, attracted more than 5.3 million peak viewers and a 20.6% average audience share between 8.30pm and 10pm, while highs of over 5.2 million viewers tuned in to see the end of the Fulham v Atlético Madrid game on Channel Five.

Meanwhile, Alan Sugar’s new Junior Apprentice, which unsurprisingly follows the same format as the classic BBC One programme The Apprentice, only with Sugar being slightly-less mean, banked just over 4.4 million peak viewers and a 16.2% audience share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, Channel 4’s Jamie Does The French Pyrenees pulled in 1.6 million average viewers and a 6.5% audience share, while BBC Two’s Monty Halls’ Great Hebridean Escape picked up 1.3 million average viewers and a 5.3% share.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps dominated the pre-watershed slots.  BBC One’s Eastenders attracted the highest overall ratings of the evening with 7.2 million peak viewers, while ITV1’s Emmerdale peaked with 6 million viewers.

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.