TV Overnights: The Apprentice continues to storm the ratings with over 7.2m viewers
The Apprentice won the 9pm to 10pm prime-time ratings war once again last night with a peak audience of more than 7.2 million viewers.
The second episode of the new series, which saw the squabbling girls’ team lose by a mile, attracted a higher 6.9 million average viewers and a 27.1% share compared with the debut episode’s 6.5 million viewers last week.
Meanwhile, ITV1’s ever-popular Midsomer Murders pulled in a peak audience of more than 5.4 million viewers at 8pm, but slipped down to an average of 4.9 million and a 19.9% share during the full 8pm to 10pm slot.
Channel 4’s Grand Designs was also overshadowed by BBC One’s Apprentice, although it managed a decent 2.2 million average viewers and a 8.9% share during the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour.
At the same time, Channel 5’s long-running NCIS picked up over a million viewers, while BBC Two’s Wonderland: Boy Cheerleaders pulled in a low 975,000 viewers. BBC Two took a dip in ratings with it’s peak-hour show following respectable figures for both the Commonwealth Games and Masterchef: The Professionals.
The channel’s Commonwealth Games coverage attracted over 1.7 million peak viewers between 7pm and 8pm, while Masterchef banked an even higher 3.4 million peak viewers in the pre-watershed 8pm to 9pm slot.
BBC One did slightly less well in the pre-watershed slot with Waterloo Road taking an average of 4.1 million viewers as it came head to head with the first hour of ITV1’s Midsomer Murders.
However, the feel-good story of the freed Chilean miners helped to boost BBC One’s Breakfast show and News at Ten. Breakfast attracted a peak viewing figure of 2.5 million, half a million more than its peak in the same slot last week. BBC News at Ten, meanwhile, saw an even bigger increase – with a peak audience of 5.6 million viewers compared to a high of 4.3 million last Wednesday.
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.