TV Overnights: Penultimate Apprentice wins 8.1m viewers

The Apprentice peaked with more than 8.1 million viewers during last night’s peak-hour as the series nears to an end.

The penultimate episode, which saw three candidates leave the competition after a grilling from Lord Sugar’s peers, attracted over 7.9  million average viewers and a 30.3% audience share during the 9pm to 10pm slot.

It put BBC One well ahead of its rival terrestrial channels in the race for the peak-hour ratings, with ITV1 pulling in a much lower 3.2 million viewers between 9pm and 10pm.

The concluding episode of ITV1’s classic police drama A Touch of Frost pulled in an average overall audience of 3.2 million viewers and a 13.2% share between 8pm and 10pm.

Elsewhere, Channel 4’s popular Grand Designs series peaked with 1.8 million viewers and a 6.5% share, while BBC Two’s Ancient Works picked up 1.3 million average viewers and a 5.1% share during the hour-long 9pm to 10pm slot.

Over on 5, the channel’s Europa League Football coverage drew in 2.5 million average viewers and a 10.4% share during the prime time evening slot.

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.