TV Overnights: Candidates lack of fizz secures biggest audience for BBC One

If the latest series of The Apprentice (BBC One, 9pm) has been lacking any vital ingredients it has been large amounts of alcohol. God knows, this year’s candidates needed a little confidence boost and last night’s episode saw them swim in the seas of blissful toxicity. It was fairly cruel of Lord Sugar to have the remaining characters assemble at St. Pancras International and not put them on the Eurostar for a special French task, but hard graft isn’t about perks. Instead the focus was on the popular Champagne bar as the teams were challenged to promote the French brand’s most feared nemesis: English sparkling wine (there’s a huge difference, apparently).

6 million viewers watched as team Phoenix extensively researched their product (there’s nothing like a cheeky mid-week tipple) and produced the less visually awful of the two promotional videos. As usual, the team in the most trouble at the end didn’t so much lose to the opposing team; they just failed their task in a more straight-forward and clear manner. The current series continued to pull in the regular amount of viewers week on week with no drastic changes and the ninth episode scored a 25% audience share. Later on BBC Two The Apprentice: You’re Fired captured the channel’s biggest audience of the day. 2.2 million people tuned in for the post-mortem; with so many bad decisions to pick apart, it’s a wonder they manage to fit it into half an hour.

Earlier on ITV1, lone soap of the evening Emmerdale (ITV1) saw Lisa visit Zak in the psychiatric ward, leaving her more than a little shaken. The episode, which scored a 30% share, pulled in 5.7 million viewers.

Last night saw the return of Lewis (9pm) to ITV1, as lecturers, botanists and students all across Oxford worried about their life expectancies. Detective Morse’s former underling continued to pave his own path (a familiar franchise never hurt a broadcaster – the episode scored a 21% audience share) as the detective returned for a sixth series. Despite the presence of super-sleuths Lewis and Hathaway, it appears that Oxford is as dangerous a place to live as Weatherfield or Walford; it wasn’t long before a Professor’s rotting corpse was unearthed and the crime-solving duo were trading quips, all to an audience of 5 million viewers.

Up against the Oxford detectives was the return of another popular show on Channel 4. 9pm brought the premiere of the second series of 24 Hours in A&E. The documentary series gives viewers unprecedented access to one of London’s busiest hospitals by installing 70 fixed cameras around the ward (so the set up was very similar to One Born Every Minute but with more of a variety of mess to clean up). An audience of 2.4 million viewers (Channel 4’s biggest of the day) tuned in to see the evidence mount up against cycling to work in London.

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.